BR. 479  .S64  1922 

Smith,  Robert  Phiiir, 
Religious  optimis'^^- 


BELIGIOUS  OPTIMISM 


RELIGIOUS 
OPTIMISM 


R.  P.  SMITH,  A.M.,  D.D. 

Pastor,  First  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 

Bozeman,  Montana. 

1922 

Author,  "Spiritual  Value  of  Work." 

rormer  President  of 
Kansas  Wesleyan  University 

Also  of 
Montana  Wesleyan  University 


THE  STRATFORD  COMPANY 

Publishers 
Boston,  Massachusetts 


Copyright,   1922 

The  STRATFORD  CO.,   Publishers 

Boston,   Mass. 


The  Alpine  Press,  Boston,  Mass.,  U.  S.  A. 


"If   you   glance   at   history ^s   pages, 

In  all  lands  and  eras  known 
You  will  find  the  vanished  ages 

Far  more  wicked  than  our  own. 

As  you  scan  each  word  and  letter, 

You  will  realize  it  more, 
That  the  world  today  is  better 

^han  it  ever  was  before." 

—  Ella  Wheeler  Wilcox. 


To 

My  Two  Brothers  in  the  Ministry 

THE  Keverend  Edward  Smith,  and 

THE  Reverend  Attree  Smith. 


Contents 


Chapter 


Page 


Preface 

I 

A  Common  Fallacy 

.      1 

II 

Careless   Criticisms 

.      9 

III 

The  Good  Old-Time  Religion 

.    23 

IV 

Progress  in  General 

.    29 

V 

Progress  in  the  United  States 

.    35 

VI 

Men  in  the  Church  .         .        .         . 

.    43 

VII 

A  Miracle  in  Book-Making    . 

.    49 

VIII 

Open-Handed  Religion  . 

.    59 

IX 

A  Fountain  of  Democracy 

.     67 

X 

A  New  Source  of  Religion      . 

.     77 

XI 

Stupendous  Revivals 

.     89 

XII 

The  Ongoings  of  History 

.  101 

XIII 

By-Products  of  the  Church    . 

.  113 

XIV 

Unorganized  Religion     . 

.  123 

XV 

Biblical  Learning    . 

.  135 

XVI 

Modern  Theology  . 

.  145 

XVII 

Other  Tendencies    . 

.  155 

XVIII 

Facing  Facts  .... 

.  165 

XIX 

What  of  the  Future?      , 

.  177 

PREFACE 

ON  different  occasions  during  the  past  decade, 
before  Ministerial  Associations  and  elsewhere, 
the  writer  of  this  volume  has  been  called  upon  to 
defend  the  optimistic  view  in  regard  to  church  atten- 
dance and  the  progress  of  the  Christian  religion.  The 
following  chapters  furnish  an  opportunity  to  state 
his  position  more  fully  and  definitely.  No  effort  has 
been  made  to  be  exhaustive.  The  aim  has  been  simply 
to  give  a  general  outline  -of  an  argument  that  could, 
he  thinks,  be  made  much  more  complete  and  con- 
vincing. 

No  one  just  now  would  care  to  speak  a  word  which 
might  have  the  effect  of  putting  the  church  to  sleep 
in  an  easy-going  complacency.  We  must  not  present 
nor  cherish  a  type  of  optimism  that  cuts  the  nerve 
of  endeavor.  This  is  the  time  for  the  church  to 
become  alert,  and  to  put  forth  renewed  energy  to  the 
achievement  of  greater  tasks.  But  when  facts  war- 
rant it,  one  is  justified  in  speaking  a  word  designed 
to  give  the  hope  and  inspiration  that  come,  if  not 
from  assured  victory,  at  least  from  the  feeling  that 
we  are  making  substantial  progress. 

The  author  is  quite  conscious  of  the  short  comings 
of  the  modem  church  —  her  lack  of  spiritual  power, 
her  divided  councils,  her  over-lapping  in  denomina- 
tional effort,  her  present  day  reactionary  tendencies, 
her  over  emphasis  of  institutionalism,  her  need  of 


PREFACE 

more  intensive  work- — a  hundred  complaints  can  be 
brought  against  the  modern  church.  Neither  is  he 
unconscious  of  the  magnitude  of  the  task  that  still 
lies  before  the  church.  This  task  when  seen  in  all 
its  proportions  and  complexities  is  little  less  than 
staggering.  That  some  two-thirds  of  the  human  race 
are  illiterate  and  crying  for  light,  and  nearly  the 
same  number  are  unchristianized  and  in  dire  need 
of  the  Christ,  and  literally  millions  are  suffering  for 
the  bare  necessities  of  physical  existence  forbid  that 
one   should   approach  his  work  in   over   confidence. 

Neither  is  he  unmindful  of  the  blemishes  of  modern 
Christian  civilization  —  of  the  prevalence  of  crime, 
of  juvenile  delinquency,  of  the  disregard  of  the  sanc- 
tity of  the  marriage  vow,  of  the  deep  set  greed  and 
common  practice  of  profiteering,  of  the  ** Hell's  Half 
Acres"  in  the  large  cities  of  America  and  Europe,  of 
the  murderous  class  hatred  that  makes  possible  the 
unspeakable  horrors  of  the  Herrin  massacre.  He  is 
more  or  less  familiar  with  the  verdict  of  modem 
biology  and  the  intelligence  tests  of  modern  psychol- 
ogy as  presented  in  such  works  as  Mr.  Stoddard 's  The 
Revolt  Against  Civilization.  But  dip  almost  any- 
where into  the  past  and  conditions  can  be  found  so 
dark  that  one  hesitates  to  paint  them  and  hence 
charitably  refrains  from  making  comparison  with 
past  history  involving  the  darker  aspects  of  human 
nature.  There  is,  undeniably,  enough  bad  in  the 
world  today.  But  the  world  is  not  going  to  the  bad. 
It  moves,  and  it  is  moving  toward  the  Christian  goal. 

Midst  the  troubled  conditions  of  society  in   our 


PREFACE 

age,  midst  all  the  greed,  wickedness,  and  ugly  pas- 
sions of  men,  ^'Is  the  church  retrograding  or  improv- 
ing, is  the  Christian  religion  advancing,  standing  still, 
or  waning f^^  This  is  primarily  the  theme  of  this 
volume.  The  larger  question  *'Is  the  world  growing 
better?"  is  touched  upon  but  this  is  not  the  main 
thesis.  Freely  admitting  that  the  church  is  not  what 
it  can  be  and  ought  to  be,  it  will  be  maintained  here 
that  this,  up  to  date,  is  Christianity's  best  day  and 
tomorrow  promises  to  be  far  better. 

R.  P.  Smith. 


COMMON  FALLACIES 


"There  is  majestic  harmony  and  a  sublime  rhji;hm  in  the 
song  of  the  centuries.  Now,  the  "Miserere"  wails  through 
the  vaulted  chambers,  and  harsh  discord  rudely  breaks  the 
harmony,  but  only  to  brighten  its  charm,  as  heard  through 
the  distance  of  centuries.  Again  the  "Hallelujah  Chorus" 
is  heard  from  pole  to  pole,  and  the  paean  of  victory  portends 
the  final  triumphant  issue  in  the  sweet  harmony  of  peace." 

Julian  Henry  Myers. 

"The  imperfections  of  the  present  must  suggest  and 
inspire  the  betterment  of  the  future.  To  publish  evils  is 
not  always  to  promise  reform.  Discontent  becomes  con- 
structive only  when  it  is  joined  by  hopefulness.  —  Restless- 
ness under  inequitable  conditions  has  always  been  a  factor 
in  Americanism.  But  it  has  been  creative  rather  than 
pessimistic.  When  Americans  lose  this  resilient  confidence 
in  the  future,  America  will  have  grown  senile." 

Shailer  MatJiew  — 
The   Validity  of  American  Ideals. 


CHAPTER  I 
Common  Fallacies 

IT  IS  not  intended  in  this  volume  to  minimize  the 
evils  of  this  age,  the  imperfections  of  the  modern 
church,  nor  the  magnitude  of  the  tasks  that  lie  before 
the  church.  Conditions  are  bad  enough  and  religious 
progress  slow  enough.  It  will,  however,  be  argued 
that  there  are  more  solid  reasons  for  hope,  for  intelli- 
gent optimism  than  in  any  other  period  in  the  history 
of  the  Christian  religion. 

Few  of  us  are  historians.  We  lack  the  historic 
perspective,  —  that  peculiar  gift  of  the  imagination 
that  can  make  a  vivid  picture  of  the  past.  We  are 
given  to  minify  the  faults  of  the  past;  indeed,  this 
in  itself  is  a  ground  for  optimism;  that,  as  a  race, 
we  are  not  only  willing  to  have  the  faults  of  the  past 
fade  away,  but  we  actually  strive  to  bury  them.  On 
the  other  hand,  we  magnify  the  virtues  of  the  past. 
This  too  is  reason  for  hope,  —  showing  that  the  race 
intuitively  garners  the  good.  One  strong  evidence 
indicating  there  is  purpose  in  history  is  that  evil 
is  destroyed  and  the  good  preserved.  History  con- 
tains a  principle,  a  force,  a  spirit  ''that  makes  for 
righteousness"  and  this  spirit  is  never  entirely  in- 
active.   It  was  never  so  apparent  as  today. 

But,   turning   to   the   present,    our  psychology   is 
reversed.    As  we  struggle  with  life's  tasks,  we  mag- 

[I] 


RELIGIOUS  OPTIMISM 

nify  life's  problems,  hindrances,  and  evils  with  which 
we  contend,  and  minify  the  good  we  enjoy.  This 
common  fallacy  should  be  carefully  kept  in  mind  in 
comparing  the  past  with  the  present.  The  present 
with  all  its  evil  is  vividly  before  us,  —  open  to  our 
gaze.  The  past  with  chiefly  the  good  is  before  us. 
Most  of  the  bad  has  faded  out  of  memory. 

There  never  w^as  a  time  when  people  tumbled  over 
each  other  to  get  to  church,  or  jammed  the  door 
trying  to  get  in,  or,  having  gotten  in,  were  em- 
barrassed for  standing  room.  This  may  have  been 
true  in  individual  cases  and  for  brief  periods  of 
time,  but  not  generally  and  not  for  any  considerable 
length  of  time.  But  this  is  true  now  spasmodically. 
Witness  the  Billy  Sunday  and  Gypsy  Smith  meet- 
ings; also  the  present  movement  in  Scotland,  and 
the  mass  movements  toward  Christianity  in  the 
Orient. 

True,  some  folks  remember  crowded  churches  in 
their  childhood,  and  when  it  seemed  the  custom  in 
their  neighborhood  for  everybody  to  go  to  church. 
But,  were  you  to  ask  these  people  what  per  cent  of 
the  population  of  the  country  in  general  were  church 
members  and  regularly  attended  church;  or  what 
was  the  seating  capacity  of  churches  at  that  time  com- 
pared with  the  seating  capacity  of  churches  today; 
or  should  you  ask  them  to  compare  the  seatings  of 
the  churches  with  the  population  of  that  age,  and  the 
seatings  of  the  churches  with  the  population  of  this 
age,  they  would  be  at  a  loss  to  give  any  intelligent 
answers.     The  seating  capacity  of  churches  today. 


COMMON  FALLACIES 

compared  with  the  population,  is  by  far  the  highest, 
in  the  history  of  the  country.  This  fact  also  must 
be  taken  into  careful  consideration  in  comparing  the 
present  with  the  past,  particularly  by  those  who  are 
given  to  magnifying  the  empty  benches  in  modern 
churches. 

Statements  in  regard  to  people  flocking  to 
churches  in  an  early  day  are  just  about  as  trust- 
worthy as  the  ordinary  man's  observation  about  the 
weather,  or  -one 's  impressions  of  the  old  home  after  one 
has  been  away  for  forty  years.  I  was  reared  on  an 
eighty-acre  farm.  It  was  divided  into  ten-acre 
fields.  As  a  lad,  those  fields  seemed  very  large  to 
me,  —  particularly  when  I  was  compelled  to  hoe  a 
row  of  corn  from  one  end  to  the  other.  My  boyhood 
vision  of  those  fields  still  remains.  At  a  distance 
they  still  seem  large,  but  when  I  return  now  to  the 
old  home  and  see  those  fields  as  they  really  are,  they 
seem  the  merest  garden  patches  as  compared  with  the 
concept  that  lies  in  the  back  part  of  my  brain  about 
them,  —  a  conception  that  I  find  impossible  to  correct 
except  by  returning  to  the  scenes  of  my  boyhood. 
It  is  this  bit  of  intellectual  readjustment  we  need  in 
comparing  churches  and  church  attendance  of  the 
past  with  that  of  the  present. 

People  who  once  attended  church  and  have 
dropped  out  of  the  habit,  seem  to  think  that  others 
also  have  dropped  out  of  the  habit,  or  they  uncon- 
sciously try  to  justify  their  own  course  by  persuading 
themselves  that  people  do  not  go  to  church  now  as 
they  did  in  an  earlier  day.     Such  observations  find 

[3] 


/- 


RELIGIOUS  OPTIMISM 

their  way  into  our  newspapers  and  magazines  until 
a  large  part  of  our  population  have  come  to  think  that 
churches  are  comparatively  poorly  attended,  have  lost 
their  influence,  and  that  Christianity  is  waning. 

Not  only  must  these  common  fallacies  be  guarded 
against,  there  is  also  the  fallacy  of  the  impatience  of 
the  reformer  who  thinks  in  terms  of  months  and 
years.  He  is  anxious  to  see  the  immediate  results 
from  his  labors.  His  statements  are  often  the  mere 
expression  of  this  anxiety.  Great  causes  move  in 
centuries  and  cycles.  In  their  earlier  periods  espe- 
cially they  seem  to  advance  slowly  or  even  to  lose 
ground.  They  go  forward  by  alternate  periods  of 
gain  and  loss.  During  the  periods  of  loss  it  is  quite 
easy  to  become  discouraged  or  even  to  despair  over 
their  final  outcome. 

So  careful  a  writer  as  Charles  A.  Ellwood,  whom 
we  shall  have  occasion  frequently  to  quote  approv- 
ingly, says  ''We  have  come  to  the  parting  of  the 
ways.  Unless  the  world  becomes  speedily  Christian, 
it  is  bound  to  become  speedily  pagan.  We  can  not  tol- 
erate pagan  standards  in  business,  in  politics,  in  edu- 
cation, in  art,  literature  and  science  without  coming  to 
repudiate  the  Christian  ideal  of  life  altogether." 
The  church  is  not  tolerating  these  pagan  tendencies. 
She  is  preserving  her  own  soul  by  protesting  against 
them.  Whether  such  predictions  are  true  or  false 
may  not  be  known  for  fifty  or  a  hundred  years,  and 
by  that  time  they  will  be  forgotten.  The  probability 
is  that  this  statement  will  prove  false,  for  we  do  know 
that   religious   literature    is   dotted   all    over   with 

[4] 


COMMON  FALLACIES 

prophecies  of  this  nature.  Among  so  many,  a  limited 
number  are  sure  to  be  correct,  as  was  Abraham 
Lincoln's  declaration  that  this  nation  can  not  long 
endure  half  free  and  half  slave.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
in  a  progressive  civilization,  every  day  is  a  parting  of 
the  way.  It  is  also  true  that  causes  after  a  period  of 
gradual  development  often  do  culminate  in  unex- 
pected victory.  The  temperance  reform  suddenly 
resulting  in  national  prohibition  is  an  example. 
There  is  some  wisdom  in  the  words  of  Horace  Mann, 
however,  who  after  witnessing  a  measure  to  the  sup- 
port of  which  he  had  given  years  of  toil,  defeated  in 
the  Massachusetts  legislature,  said:  ''The  truth  is  I 
was  in  a  hurry  and  God  is  not. ' ' 

In  our  moments  of  pessimism  it  is  at  times  help- 
ful to  remind  ourselves  how  brief  after  all  is  the 
time  the  Christian  religion  has  been  at  work  in  the 
world  —  how  short  a  time,  comparatively,  it  has  had 
for  the  stupendous  task  of  transforming  the  char- 
acter of  men  and  establishing  the  kingdom  of  God  on 
earth.  Man  has  been  on  the  earth  250,000  or  even^ 
1,000,000  or  more  years.  Compared  with  this  dura- 
tion Christianity  has  been  at  work  but  a  few  hours. 
There  are  those  who  estimate  the  time  man  has  lived 
on  the  earth  as  a  period  so  vast,  that  comparatively, 
the  historic  period  of  man  is  but  seven  minutes.^ 

Allowance  should  furthermore  be  made  for  the 


1  0.  E.  W.  Dodwell  in  Righteousness  versus  Religion  says:  "The 
sciences  of  Geology,  Anthropology,  Astro-Physics  and  others  prove  con- 
clusively that  the  earth  has  been  habitable,  and  the  abode  of  man, 
for  an  incalculable  period  of  time;  certainly  several  millions  of  years." 
Many  conservative  writers  place  the  time  at  least  a  million  years.  For 
a  brief  discussion  of  the  time  man  has  lived  on  the  earth  see 
Conklin.     "The  Direction  of  Human  Evolution."  Chapter  II. 

[5] 


RELIGIOUS  OPTIMISM 

pessimistic  utterances  during  and  immediately  after 
the  war.  Edward  Carpenter  is  typical  of  a  class  in 
accusing  ''Christian  priests  in  the  forms  of  its 
various  sects,  Greek  or  Catholic,  Lutheran  or 
Protestant,  of  having  in  these  last  days  rushed  forth 
to  urge  nations  to  slaughter  each  other  with  every 
diabolical  device  of  science,  and  to  glorify  the  war- 
cry  of  patriotism  in  defiance  of  the  principle  of  uni- 
versal brotherhood."^  There  is  a  real  inconsistency, 
of  course,  in  Christian  people  warring  against  each 
other  at  all,  but  against  such  an  outburst  of  paganism 
as  occurred  in  the  central  powers  in  1914,  we  should 
not  have  been  worthy  the  name  "of  Christian  nations 
had  we  made  no  resistance.  Future  history  will,  no 
doubt,  record  with  approval  the  fact  that  the  major 
part  of  Christianity  resisted  and  checked,  even  by 
war,  such  pagan  tendencies. 

But  it  is  the  after-war  symptoms,  they  tell  us,  that 
are  most  discouraging.  History  shows  such  tenden- 
cies after  all  great  wars.  These  after-war  pagan 
tendencies  are  not  to  be  denied  either  in  America  or 
in  Europe.  Much  of  our  during-war  idealism  has 
faded,  but  at  the  same  time  after-war  utterances  are 
likely  to  be  unduly  pessimistic.  The  world  mind  is 
weary.  We  are  in  a  world  psychology  not  unlike 
that  of  a  minister  on  "Blue  Monday."  This  is  espe- 
cially true  of  English  and  European  writers  —  those 
who  were  under  the  greatest  strain  and  who  now 
stand  nearest  the  hardest  problems  of  reconstruction. 


1  Pagan   and   Christian  Creeds,   p.   258. 

[6] 


COMMON  FALLACIES 

Their  utterances  can  hardly  be  regarded  as  normal, 
for  they  see  through  a  glass  darkly. 

Much  criticism  about  the  church  springs  from  sur- 
face impressions.  It  is  not  based  on  fact,  or  on  care- 
ful scientific  investigation.  These  careless  impres- 
sions should  be  removed  from  the  popular  mind 
and  a  more  accurate  picture  of  the  progress  and 
achievements  and  the  ever  widening  and  deepening 
influence  of  the  Christian  religion  should  be  brought 
to  public  attention.  Also  the  after-war  criticism  by 
able  writers  should  be  held  in  suspense  at  least  until 
we  are  farther  from  the  scenes  of  that  awful  tragedy. 
We  predict  that  criticism  of  the  church  and  our 
modern  social  conditions  in  general  will  be  far  more 
hopeful  in  ten  or  twenty  years,  after  our  feeling  and 
thinking  has  had  time  to  become  normal. 


[7] 


CARELESS  CRITICISMS 


In  1711  Joseph  Addison  and  Richard  Steele,  in  London, 
began  the  publication  of  the  Spectator,  in  every  nnmbel 
presenting  an  editorial-like  essay  that  laughed  kindly  at  the 
follies  and  weaknesses  of  1711.  Curiously  enough  the  follies 
and  weaknesses  are  those  of  today.  —  Are  those  critics  right 
who  call  the  present  times  degenerate?  Only  the  future 
can  tell,  but  the  lesson  of  the  Spectator  is  that  every 
period  has  its  virtues  and  its  follies,  and  that  human  nature 
in  one  time  is  the  same  that  it  was  in  another.  A  stronger 
and  better  civilization  succeeded  that  one  which  Addison 
and  Steele  ridiculed.  Social  degeneration  today  may  be 
only  apparent.  It  may  be  that  we  see  our  faults  so  clearly 
that  we  are  leading  the  way  to  an  age  that  will  be  as 
superior  to  1922  as  1922  is  superior  to  1711. 

The  Independent  and  the  Weekly  Review 
April  1,  1922. 

"It  is  foolish  to  expect  that  religion  and  morality  can 
escape  the  criticism  which  is  being  applied  to  all  other  insti- 
tutions. Their  friends  can  best  serve  their  interests  not 
by  seeking  to  shield  them  from  criticism  but  by  seeking  to 
guide  criticism  into  rational  channels." 

Charles  A.  Ellwood. 


CHAPTER  II 

Careless  Criticisms 

THESE  careless  criticisms  of  the  church  today 
are  usually  to  the  effect  that  it  is  losing  mem- 
bers, that  people  no  longer  go  to  church  as  they  used 
to,  and  that  men,  especially  young  men,  have  tabooed 
the  church.  It  is  pointed  out  that  we  have  Christian 
activities  but  have  lost  Christian  faith  and  exper- 
ience ;  that  the  sanctions  of  religion  have  been  greatly 
weakened;  and  that  indifference,  infidelity,  or  out- 
broken crime  are  rampant  in  the  land.  Organized 
Christianity  particularly  is  held  to  be  a  failure,  a 
back  number,  or  a  spent  force.  Cynics  are  speaking 
not  of  the  church  militant;  but  of  the  "church  im-" 
potent  here  on  earth."  Much  of  this  criticism  goes 
unchallenged.  A  very  little  investigation,  however, 
would  indicate  that  it  has  little  or  no  basis  in  fact. 

Such  criticism  is  not  confined  to  this  age,  it  can  be 
traced  back  in  church  papers  and  general  literature 
■for  three  or  four  thousand  years.  It  is  usually 
couched  in  practically  the  same  terms  and  is  about 
equally  common  to  every  generation.  Yet  Jewish 
religion  blossomed  out  into  Christianity,  and  Chris- 
'  tianity  into  our  modern  civilization,  and  progress, 
with  a  few  exceptions  here  and  there,  has  been,  we 
believe,,  the  law  of  human  history. 

It  is  reported  that  there  is  in  one  of  the  European 

[9] 


RELIGIOUS  OPTIMISM 

yf  Museums  the  oldest  known  manuscript  in  Syllabic 
writing  on  papyrus  written  in  Egypt.  This  manu- 
script reaches  back  at  least  to  1500  B.  C.  The  writer 
devotes  his  essay  to  deploring  moral  conditions,  the 
trifling  character  of  the  young  people  of  his  time, 
and  imploring  them  to  return  to  the  higher  faith  and 
better  standards  of  their  fathers/  Dip  anywhere 
into  the  literature  of  the  past,  and  you  can  find 
criticism  against  religion  and  the  waywardness  of 
young  people  doleful  enough  to  make  the  heart  sick. 
But  the  Church  of  God,  the  moral  welfare  of  the 
race,  has  gone  on  to  new  and  larger  achievements, 
and  today  is  enjoying  a  measure  of  prosperity,  and 
exercising  an  influence  never  before  known. 

All  are  familiar  with  that  classic  of  pessimistic 
expression  found  in  Jewish  literature  about  1000 
B.  C.  *'I  have  been  very  jealous  for  the  Lord  God 
of  Hosts:  The  children  of  Israel  have  forsaken  thy 
covenant,  thrown  down  thine  altars,  and  slain  thy 
prophets  with  the  sword ;  and  I,  even  I  only,  am  left : 
and  they  seek  my  life  to  take  it  away."  But  the 
^  Lord  replied  to  Elijah,  *'I  have  left  me  7,000  in 
Israel,  who  have  not  bowed  unto  Baal  and  who  have 
not  kissed  him." 

History  at  times  seems  literally  to  mock  at  such 
criticisms.  In  the  third  century  Diocletian  believed 
he  had  utterly  destroyed  Christianity.  A  medal  was 
struck  in  his  honor  bearing  the  words,  ''The  name 
of  Christ  being  extinguished,"  and  a  monument  was 

1  "Civilization  Still  Survives,"  an  article  in  a  recent  issue  of  th« 
Outlook. 

[10] 


CARELESS  CRITICISMS 

erected  to  him  for  "having  everywhere  abolished  the 
superstition  of  Christ." 

Voltaire  said,  ' '  In  less  than  a  hundred  years  Chris- 
tianity will  have  been  swept  from  existence,  and  will 
have  passed  into  history."  But  the  house  where 
Voltaire  lived  became  a  depot  for  a  Bible  society  and 
has  been  packed  with  Bibles,  while  his  old  printing 
press  has  been  used  to  print  the  Word  of  God!  It 
was  said  during  the  French  Revolution,  referring  to 
the  Christian  religion,  that  the  superstitions  of 
eighteen  centuries  had  been  overthrown,  but  it  was 
only  a  short  time  till  Christ's  kingdom  was  prosper- 
ing among  the  children  of  the  Revolution. 

Tom  Paine,  returning  from  France,  knowing  that 
his  "Age  of  Reason"  was  sold  on  the  streets  of  London 
and  Paris  at  a  penny  apiece  and  sent  by  the  shipload 
to  America,  said,  with  an  air  of  satisfaction  and 
confidence,  "In  five  years  from  now  there  will  be 
not  a  Bible  in  America.  I  have  gone  through  it  with 
an  ax  and  cut  down  all  trees.  They  are  no  longer 
timber,  but  lumber,  to  be  put  with  all  other  lumber 
on  the  shelf.  The  Bible  is  a  tissue  of  absurdities 
and  falsehoods,  which  I  will  expose  to  the  ridicule 
of  the  world." 

In  1798  the  Presbyterian  General  Assembly  sounded 
the  tocsin,  —  "We  desire  to  direct  your  attention 
toward  that  bursting  storm  which  threatens  to  sweep 
before  it  the  religious  principles,  institutions  and 
morals  of  our  people.  We  perceive  with  pain  and 
fearful    apprehension    the    destruction    of    religious 


RELIGIOUS  OPTIMISM 

principles  and  practice  among  our  fellow  citizens, 
and  an  abounding  infidelity." 

Chancellor  Kent,  born  1763,  says:  ''In  my  younger 
days,  there  were  few  professional  men  who  were  not 
infidels."  And  Timothy  Dwight  declared:  ''Strip- 
lings scarcely  fledged  thought  the  light  of  wisdom 
had  just  began  to  dawn  upon  the  human  race.  Re- 
ligion they  discovered  to  be  a  vision  of  dotards  and 
nurses,  a  system  of  fraud  and  trickery  imposed  by 
priestcraft.  Revelation  was  found  to  be  without 
authority  or  evidence,  and  moral  obligation  a  cob- 
web which  might  indeed  entangle  flies,  but  with  which 
creatures  of  stronger  will  nobly  disclaim  to  be  con- 
fined." 

Despite  all  such  predictions  and  criticisms,  Chris - 
tianitj^  continues  to  make  progress,  to  engraft  itself 
more  deeply  into  all  our  institutions,  and  to  gain  ad- 
herents in  ever  increasing  numbers.  The  principles 
of  this  religion  were  never  before  so  firmly  established 
in  the  affections  and  reverence  of  mankind.  There 
is  also  much  modern  criticism  against  both  the  church 
and  Christianity,  but  in  all  probability  in  a  hundred 
years  most  of  it  will  sound  about  as  foolish  as  that 
we  have  just  quoted.  Some  of  this  is  sober  and  schol- 
arly. Some  is  intended  to  be  destructive.  There  is 
much  also  that  is  simply  the  outgrowth  of  pessimism. 

In  1921  a  manifesto  was  issued  in  England  by  such 
leaders  of  religious  thought  as  W.  B.  Selbie,  John 
Clifford,  L.  P.  Jacks  and  A.  E.  Garvie,  containing 
the  following:  "No  lover  of  mankind  or  of  progress, 
no  student  of  religion,  of  morals,  or  of  economics,  can 

[12] 


CARELESS  CRITICISMS 

regard  the  present  trend  of  affairs  without  feelings  of 
great  anxiety.  Civilization  itself  seems  to  be  on  the 
wane.  It  is  becoming  increasingly  evident  that  the 
world  has  taken  a  wrong  turn."  This  is  pessimism 
arising,  no  doubt,  in  part  at  least  from  standing  so 
close  to  the  great  problems  of  reconstruction  in 
Europe.  Edward  Carpenter,  in  Pagan  and  Chris- 
tian Creeds  has  a  chapter  on  ' '  The  Exodus  of 
Christianity"  in  which  he  says  ''That  Christianity 
can  continue  to  hold  the  field  of  religion  in  the 
Western  World  is  neither  probable  nor  desirable." 
This  is  simply  destructive  criticism.  In  somewhat  the 
same  vein  in  an  investigation  based  upon  a  study  of 
the  opinions  of  nearly  a  thousand  students  in  our 
American  colleges,  J.  H.  Leuba  writes ;  * '  Christianity 
as  a  system  of  belief,  has  utterly  broken  down  and 
nothing  definite  and  convincing  has  taken  its  place." 
A  study  of  the  views  -of  the  same  number  of  students 
in  our  colleges  fiity  or  a  hundred  years  ago  might  have 
given  even  a  darker  picture ;  or  the  selection  of  a  diff- 
erent class  of  students  might  have  given  opinions  jus- 
tifying an  opposite  conclusion.  H.  G.  Wells,  in  the 
Outlines  of  History  thinks  the  religion  of  the  future 
''will  not  be  Christianity,  nor  Islam  nor  Buddhism, 
nor  any  such  specialized  form  of  religion,  but  religion 
itself  pure  and  undefiled. ' '  That  Christianity  may  in 
the  future  be  stripped  of  some  of  its  institutionalism 
and  approach  nearer  the  very  heart  and  teaching 
and  simple  spirit  of  Jesus  we  agree,  but  the  religion 
of  Jesus  will  remain  the  religion  of  the  future.  Prof. 
Santayana  in  Character  and  Opinion  in  the  United 

[13] 


RELIGIOUS  OPTIMISM 

States  says:  "Civilization  is  perhaps  approaching 
one  of  those  long  winters  that  overtake  it  from  time 
to  time.  A  flood  of  barbarism  from  below  may  soon 
level  all  the  fair  works  of  our  Christian  ancestors,  as 
another  flood  two  thousand  years  ago  levelled  those 
of  the  ancients.  Such  a  catastrophe  would  be  no 
reason  for  despair.  Under  the  deluge,  and  watered 
by  it,  seeds  of  all  sorts  would  survive  against  the  time 
to  oome. ' '  It  is  perhaps  true  that  should  our  present 
civilization  fall,  there  is  enough  good  seed  in  it  to  bear 
fruit  in  some  new  form.  All  dead  civilizations  have 
contributed  much  to  modern  civilization.  But  he 
who  invites  or  encourages  disaster  in  the  hope  that 
some  better  civilization  may  spring  up  is  follow- 
ing the  course  of  the  Eussian  Bolshevist  who  pur- 
posely resorts  to  wholesale  destruction,  hoping  that 
out  of  the  resulting  chaos  a  new  and  better  civilization 
may  come. 

Bury  in  the  History  of  Freedom  of  Thought  de- 
clares "Religion  is  gradually  becoming  less  indis- 
pensable; the  further  we  go  back  in  the  past,  the 
more  valuable  is  religion  as  an  element  of  civilization ; 
as  we  advance,  it  retreats  more  and  more  into  the 
background  to  be  replaced  by  science."  There  is 
little  doubt  but  that  science  is  destined  to  become 
a  larger  factor  in  religion,  but  that  religion  recedes 
into  the  background  in  the  measure  that  science 
advances  is  simply  not  true  historically.  Lothrop 
Stoddard  in  his  book  The  Revolt  against  Civilization, 
much  of  which  is  written  in  the  spirit  of  the  alarmist, 
fears  the  possible  collapse  of  civilization  through  the 


CARELESS  CRITICISMS 

rapid  increase  of  inferior  elements  and  the  decline  of 
the  superior  element,  and  sees  the  chief  remedy  in 
the  science  of  eugenics  and  regulation  of  marriage. 
He  maintains  *'that  civilization  depends  upon  super- 
ior racial  stocks.  At  one  end  of  the  human  scale  are 
a  number  of  superior  individuals;  at  the  other  a 
number  of  inferior  individuals  —  progress  is  primar- 
ily due  to  the  superiors.  But  what  about  inferiors? 
We  have  seen  that  they  are  incapable  of  either  creat- 
ing or  furthering  civilization,  and  are  thus  a  negative 
hindrance  to  progress.  But  the  inferiors  are  not 
mere  negative  factors  in  civilized  life;  they  are  also 
positive  in  an  inverse,  destructive  sense.  The  inferiors 
are  instinctively  or  consciously  enemies  of  civilization 
and  they  are  its  enemies  not  by  chance,  but  because 
they  are  more  or  less  uncivilizable. ' '  He  thinks  under 
present  conditions,  the  small  families  of  the  superior 
stock  indicate  that  this  element  will  decrease  and 
run  out,  and  that  through  the  preservation  of  the 
unfit  by  modern  philanthropy,  and  the  large  families 
of  the  inferiors,  this  element  is  rapidly  increasing; 
hence  at  present  civilization  is  headed  toward  ruin. 
Modern  biology  and  psychology  have  compelled  us 
to  place  greater  emphasis  upon  the  influence  of  here- 
dity as  a  determining  factor  in  the  progress  of  the 
race.*  On  the  other  hand  and  contrary  to  Mr.  Stod- 
dard's theory  both  history  and  social  science  point 
out  "That  human  communities  progress  very  largely 
in   proportion   as   they   raise  the   general  level   or 


1  See  "The  New  Heredity,"  by  Vernon  Kellogg,  the  Atlantic 
Monthly  for  November,  1922.  This  article  makes  a  careful  com- 
parison of  the  influence  of  heredity  and  environment. 

['5] 


RELIGIOUS  OPTIMISM 

average  of  their  total  life ;  and  this  level  is  raised  not 
by  producing  a  few  superior  individuals,  but  by 
raising  the  weak,  developing  the  undeveloped  and 
fitting  as  many  as  possible  for  the  best  possible  life."* 

This  is  the  theory  on  which  Christian  reformers 
and  leaders  have  worked  and  are  working.  It  accounts 
for  Christianity's  uplifting  influence  in  the  past.  It 
is  this  theory  that  makes  us  optimists  as  we  work 
among  backward  races,  and  inferior^  groups.  It  will 
be  remembered  that  Celsus  about  200  A.  D.  jeered  at 
the  early  Christians  in  the  following  terms:  *'It  is 
only  the  simpletons,  the  ignoble,  the  senseless  —  slaves 
and  womenfolk  and  children  —  whom  they  wish  to 
persuade  or  can  persuade: — wool-dressers  and  cob- 
blers, the  most  uneducated  and  vulgar  persons,  and 
whosoever  is  a  sinner,  or  unintelligent  or  a  fool,  in 
a  word  whoever  is  god-forsaken,  him  the  kingdom  of 
God  will  receive.'" 

William  James'  The  Varieties  of  Religious  Exper 
ience  and  Harold  Begbie's  Twice  Born  Men,*  both 
written  from  the  standpoint  of  psychology,  give  ample 
evidence  of  the  converting  and  transforming  power  of 
religion.  In  his  introduction  Mr.  Begbie  writes: 
''"Whatever  it  may  be,  conversion  is  the  only  means 
by  which  a  radically  bad  person  may  be  changed 
into  a  radically  good  person.  Whatever  we  may 
think  of  the  phenomenon  itself,  the  fact  stands  clear 
and  unassailable  that,  by  this  thing  called  conver- 


1  Ellwood,  The  Reconstruction  of  Christianity,  p.   167. 

2  There  may  be  backward  and  undeveloped  races,   but  there  are 
perhaps  no  inferior  races.  , 

3  Edward  Carpenter.     Pagan  and  Christian  Creeds,  p.  220. 
*  Both  these  works  appeared  before  the  war. 

[i6] 


CARELESS  CRITICISMS 

sion,  men  consciously  wrong,  inferior,  and  unhappy, 
become  consciously  right,  superior  and  happy.  It 
produces  not  a  change  but  a  revolution  in  character, 
It  does  not  alter ;  it  creates  a  new  personality. 

''There  is  nothing  else;  there  can  be  nothing  else. 
Science  despairs  of  these  people  and  pronounces  them 
hopeless  and  incurable.  Politicians  find  themselves 
at  the  end  of  their  resources.  Philanthropy  begins 
to  wonder  whether  its  charity  could  not  be  turned 
into  a  more  fertile  channel.  The  law  speaks  of 
'criminal  classes.^  It  is  only  religion  that  is  not  in 
despair  about  this  mass  of  profitless  evil  dragging 
at  the  heels  of  progress  —  the  religion  which  still  be- 
lieves in  miracles." 

The  Chicago  Interior  at  the  time  of  the  appearance 
of  this  work  made  the  following  significant  observa- 
tion: 

"What  is  the  reason  why  there  is  a  slack  emphasis 
and  an  uncertain  opinion  among  pastors  and  lay 
members  in  the  churches  in  respect  to  conversion? 
Why  is  the  voice  of  a  psychologist  clearer  here  today 
than  the  voice  of  the  tj^ical  Christian  pastor? 

"Doubtless  the  reason  is  in  part  the  new  value 
put  on  religious  education.  The  thought  of  taking 
the  child  and  training  it  up  so  straight  morally  and 
religiously  that  there  will  never  need  to  be  a  radical 
overturn  in  life  —  so  that  Christ  may  finally  be  accep- 
ted by  mere  'decision'  —  has  grown  up  to  be  the 
master-thought  of  many  Christian  workers. 

"And  that's  a  good  thought.  Don't  let  anyln-dy 
disparage  it. 

[17] 


EELIGIOUS  OPTIMISM 

''But  the  pity  is  the  pity  that  goes  with  nearly 
every  step  forward  in  the  Church's  learning  of  new 
truth  —  the  popular  Christian  mind  doesn't  prove 
big  enough  to  grasp  a  new  truth  without  losing  hold, 
for  the  time  at  least,  on  the  old  truth  it  had  before. 

''Somehow  it  is  terribly  hard  work  for  Christian 
thinking  to  occupy  both  halves  of  truth's  big  circum- 
ference at  once ;  it  gets  congested  on  one  or  the  other 
semicircle.     So,  in  this  case : 

"Learning  to  appreciate  religious  education,  the 
Church  has  drifted  away  from  its  appreciation  of 
conversion " 

Prof.  Ell  wood  makes  the  same  point.  "The  're- 
ligious psychosis',  as  we  might  call  it,  has  produced 
more  miracles  in  human  behavior  than  even  the  most 
enthusiastic  advocate  of  religion  has  ever  given  it 
credit  for.  Not  only  have,  by  means  of  it,  drunkards 
and  criminals  been  reformed,  prostitutes  been  led  to 
a  pure  life,  sinners  in  general  made  to  repent,  but 
the  character  of  whole  communities  has  been  radi- 
cally altered,  even  transformed,  in  the  course  of  a 
few  years.  Such  facts  as  these  are  not  open  even  to 
scientific  doubt,  because  they  are  checked  up  by  over- 
whelming evidence  on  the  one  hand,  and  by  the  gen- 
eral principles  of  normal  and  abnormal  psychology 
on  the  other  hand."^ 

That  class  of  writers  who  think  we  can  only  be 
saved  by  the  "thorough-breds"  need  to  be  reminded 
that  not  infrequently  in  history  the  stones  which 
the  builders  reject  become  the  head  of  the  corner. 


1  The  Reconstruction  of  Religion,  pp.  33-34. 
[i8] 


CARELESS  CRITICISMS 

Prof.  Fitch  does  well  to  remind  us  that  the  Pharisees 
and  scribes,  Herods  and  Pilates,  prime  ministers  and 
politicians  have  seldom  known  how  to  read  the  signs 
of  the  times.  "It  Avere  better,  though  men  still  call 
it  disloyal  and  indecent,  to  turn  aside  from  them  and 

listen  to  the  publican  and  sinners to  gaunt 

prophets  crying  in  the  wilderness,  for  it  is  there,  the 
maimed,  the  spoiled,  the  reckless  and  storm-driven 
and  passionate  people,  the  God's  fools  and  absurd 
idealists,  who  have  seen  first  the  coming  of  most 
kingdoms."^ 

Modern  biology^  has  dem'onstrated  the  very  great 
importance  of  heredity,  and  the  science  of  eugenics, 
no  doubt,  has  a  real  contribution  to  make  to  the 
welfare  of  the  human  family;  but  the  greatest  hope 
for  the  children  of  men  is  the  simple,  well-tried 
Gospel  of  Jesus. 

It  is  neither  expected  nor  desired,  however,  that 
the  Church  should  escape  criticism.  Criticism  today 
is  mercilessly  directed  against  all  institutions.  A  real 
service  is  rendered  the  Church  by  a  sober,  accurate, 
sympathetic  study  of  its  condition,  and  by  well  direc- 
ted criticism  or  even  censure.  It  is  the  thoughtless, 
faultfinding,  reactionary  attitude  that  proves  harm- 


1  Albert  Parker  Fitch — Can  the  Church  Survive  in  the  Changing 
Order. 

2  However,  it  might  be  well  for  those  who  are  inclined  to  put 
great  stress  on  the  verdict  of  modern  biology  to  remember  that  biology 
is  comparatively  a  new  science.  It  is  not  yet  quite  sure  of  its  own 
verdict.  Prof.  Conklin,  himself  a  noted  biologist,  "The  Direction  of 
Human  Evolution"  points  out  "That  biological  sanction  has  been 
claimed  for  wholly  antagonistic  opinions,  for  and  against  war, 
communism,  woman  suffrage,  polygamy,  etc.  Those  who  are  searching 
for  biological  analogies  to  support  almost  any  preconceived  theory 
in  philosophy,  sociology,  education  or  government  can  usually  find  it." 
p.  110. 

[19] 


RELIGIOUS  OPTIMISM 

ful.  "Destructive  criticism  must  be  clearly  disting- 
uished from  constructive  criticism.  Between  the  two 
there  is  all  the  difference  between  a  toxin  and  a 
tonic.  Constructive  criticism  aims  at  remedying  de- 
fects and  perfecting  the  existing  order  by  evolution- 
ary methods.  Destructive  criticism,  on  the  contrary, 
inveighs  against  current  defects  in  a  bitter,  carping, 
pessimistic  spirit."  Constructive  criticism  is  optim- 
istic and  wholesome.  Destructive  criticism  is  morbid, 
given  to  complaining.  It  quickly  becomes  a  disease 
and  rapidly  spreads  and  affects  larger  groups  who 
seem  to  assume  that  their  ability  to  see  faults  is  a 
mark  of  superior  insight  and  intelligence,  failing 
to  realize  that  mere  faultfinding  is  the  easiest  thing 
in  the  world,  and  that  it  blights  like  an  early  frost. 
Careless  criticism  quickly  becomes  confirmed  pessi- 
mism, and  the  fruits  of  pessimism  are  stagnation, 
retrogession,  or  revolution. 

While  religious  conditions  are  not  all  that  could 
be  desired,  the  modem  tendency  toward  pessimism  in 
regard  to  religion  is  very  unwholesome,  and  if  not 
checked,  will,  in  the  end,  prove  extremely  damaging. 


[20] 


THE  GOOD  OLD  TIME  RELIGION 


"Our  faith  is  not  in  dead  saints'  bones 

In  altars  of  vain  sacrifice; 
Nor  is  it  in  the  stately  stones 

That  rise  in  beauty  toward  the  skies. 

Our  faith  is  in  the  Christ  who  walks 
With  men  today,  in  streets  and  mart; 

The  constant  Friend  who  thinks  and  talks 
With  those  who  seek  him  with  the  heart. 

We   would   not   spurn   the   ancient  lore, 
The  prophet's  word  or  psalmist's  prayer; 

But  lo!  our  Leader  goes  before, 
To-morrow's  battles  to  prepare. 

We  serve  no  God  whose  work  is  done, 

Who  rests  within  his  firmament; 
Our  God,  His  labors  but  begun. 

Toils  evermore,  with  power  unspent. 

God  was  and  is  and  e'er  shall  be; 

Christ  lived  and  loved  —  and  loves  us  still; 
And  man  goes  forward,  proud  and  free, 

God's  present  purpose  to  fulfill." 

—  Thomas   Curtis   Clark  —  Quoted  from   the 
Northwestern  Christian  Advocate, 

April  12,  1922. 


CHAPTER  III 
The  Good  Old  Time  Religion 

A  WRITER  in  the  Congregationalist  and 
Advance  not  long  since  reviewed  the  findings  of 
a  comparatively  recent  meeting  of  the  Church  Histori- 
cal Society  at  which  some  of  the  records  of  the  relig- 
ious leaders  of  'one  hundred  years  ago  were  being  read. 
If  these  records  be  true,  it  would  seem  that  only  a 
very  small  portion  of  the  population  were  then  in 
any  wise  interested  in  the  church.  The  immorality 
of  the  country  communities  was  of  such  a  sordidness 
that  it  would  not  be  tolerated  in  New  York  or 
Chicago  for  one  week.  The  slight  opposition  to  the 
liquor  traffic  was  being  voiced  by  the  ''cranks"  and 
"lopsided  brethren."  The  most  bitter  sectarianism 
was  rife  and  communities  were  split  almost  past  be- 
lief by  the  dissensions  between  churches.  Religion 
consisted  mostly  in  emotionalism.  It  then  appeared 
that  the  power  of  the  church  was  rapidly  waning, 
and  that  it  had  lost  all  influence  over  young  people. 
It  does  not  take  much  insight  into  the  conditions  of 
the  past  to  convince  one  that  the  "fine  present  days 
are  superior  to  the  good  old  days." 

From  1817  to  1830,  —  a  period  of  about  a  dozen 
years,  —  5,788,900  volumes  of  the  works  of  Voltaire 
and  Rousseau  and  similar  writers  were  circulated 

[23] 


RELIGIOUS  OPTIMISM 

in  this  coimtrj/  Outside  of  Washington  there  were 
but  few  statesmen  who  were  pronounced  in  their 
religious  views.  Morality  was  extremely  low.  Pro- 
fanity and  impurity  were  will-nigh  universal. 
There  was  sabbath  desecration  everywhere,  and 
among  all  classes.  The  use  of  intoxicating  liquors 
was  appallingly  prevalent.  Ministerial  associations 
imbibed  freely  and  ministers  of  the  gospel  often 
bore  the  mark  of  the  ''staggering  step"  and  the 
''maudlin  speech."  Slavery  was  everywhere. 
Church  life  was  narrow  and  bigoted  and  denomina- 
tions were  not  only  wasting  their  energies  in  mutual 
hatred,  contention  and  strife,  but  their  activities 
were  extremely  limited.  There  were  virtually  no 
Sunday  schools,  except  a  few  started  experimentally, 
and  usually  against  pronounced  opposition  of  official 
boards.  There  were  no  young  people's  societies  and 
few  young  people  in  the  churches.  There  were  no 
religious  organizations  of  men  of  any  kind ;  no  mid- 
week prayer  meetings,  except  in  the  larger 
churches;^  virtually  no  missionary  movements  or 
benevolent  organizations;  no  Young  Men's  Christian 
Associations  or  Young  Women's  Christian  Associa- 
tions, or  Red  Cross  work;  practically  no  protestant 
hospitals  or  temperance  organizations ;  no  instrumen- 
tal music  and  but  little  real  Bible  study,  except  of 
the  most  literal  and  mechanical  character. 

This  is  not  an  overdrawn  indictment  of  "the  good 
old  time  religion"  of  a  few  generations  ago  of  which 

^  Edwin  N.  Hardy — The   Christian  Churches  and  Educated  Men, 
p.  120. 

2  Edwin  N.  Hardy — The  Churches  and  Educated  Men,  p.  115. 

[24] 


THE  GOOD  OLD  TIME  RELIGION 

we  hear  so  much.  One  could  keep  in  bounds  of  facts 
and  still  paint  a  darker  picture  of  this  not  distant 
past.  Instead  of  drawing  inspiration  from  this  dry 
fountain,  would  it  not  be  better  to  rejoice  over  our 
modern  religion  and  warm  our  faith  in  the  hopeful 
prospects  of  the  future,  rather  than  in  reminiscences 
of  the  past  ? 

Check  these  careless  critics  and  doleful  saints  in 
one  direction,  and  they  will  wail  forth  in  another. 
*'Yes,"  they  will  say,  ''there  may  be  church  members, 
but  they  are  worldly,  they  do  not  attend  the  churches 
as  they  used  to  in  the  'good  old  days.'  Today 
people  are  flocking  to  the  lodges  instead  of  to  the 
churches. ' ' 

Perhaps  an  investigation  here  again  might  prove 
inspiring  in  its  results.  A  recent  number  of  the 
Christian  Century  tells  how  one  man  went  out  to 
investigate  lodges  and  found  one  lodge  with  seven 
hundred  members  had  thirty-five  present  for  a 
weekly  business  meeting.  Another  with  five  hun- 
dred members  had  an  average  of  thirty.  The 
American  Legion  of  his  town  has  eleven  hundred 
members  and  an  average  attendance  of  sixty  men 
for  business  meetings,  while  his  church  of  twelve 
hundred  members  had  four  hundred  forty-five  in 
the  morning  service  and  two  hundred  six  in  the 
evening  service,  while  the  much  lamented  prayer 
meeting  averaged  higher  than  any  of  the  three  lodges 
investigated.  These  figures  are  a  fairly  good  index 
to  conditions  in  every  normal  city.  Indeed  there 
are  no  organizations  to  which  men  belong  which  they 

[25] 


RELIGIOUS  OPTIMISM 

attend  with  greater  faithfulness  than  they  attend 
the  numerous  services  connected  with  a  modern 
church. 

The  writer  is  not  what  is  known  as  a  popular 
pulpiteer,  but  he  has  delivered  some  twenty-five 
hundred  addresses  bearing  upon  some  phase  of  the 
religious  life  in  the  city  in  which  he  now  resides, 
and  still  the  same  people  in  audiences  of  about  the 
same  number  wait  upon  his  ministry.  It  is  to 
be  doubted  if  any  teacher,  lawyer,  musician  or 
lecturer,  however  brilliant,  on  any  other  topic, 
could  under  similar  conditions  interest  as  large  num- 
bers for  the  same  length  of  time.  It  is  not  the 
speaker,  it  is  the  never-dying  interest  in  the  church 
and  subject  matter  that  guarantees  attendance  and 
attention.  The  marvel,  the  miracle,  is  that  people 
attend  church  so  well. 

No  apology  is  here  made  for  lack  of  interest  in 
either  the  church  or  the  lodge.  The  attendance  at 
each  could  be  greatly  improved.  But  interest  in  and 
attendance  upon  church  services  without  doubt  sur- 
pass that  of  any  other  organization  to  which  men 
pledge  their  adherence  and  loyalty.  This  fact  should 
be  more  largely  recognized  and  more  cheerfully 
acknowledged. 

One  does  not  care  to  picture  wdth  any  degree  of 
vividness,  the  faults  of  the  church  of  the  more  dis- 
tant past.  It  becomes  too  dark.  It  is  sufficient 
merely  to  allude  to  the  theological  rancor  which  led 
to  the  assassination  of  bishops  and  ecclesiastics,  to 
papal  indulgences,  to  the  extreme  folly  of  encourag- 

[26] 


THE  GOOD  OLD  TIME  RELIGION 

ing  Children's  Crusades,  to  the  shameful  murders  of 
the  Albigenses^  and  the  Huguenots^  to  the  defence  of 
the  institution  of  human  slavery,  to  the  inquisition 
and  the  cruel  practice  of  burning  heretics,  and  to  the 
execution  of  thousands  of  witches.  This  superstition 
spread  to  America  appearing  in  the  Salem  Witch- 
craft incident.  We  are  shocked  over  the  sectarian 
hate  and  strife  in  Ireland  today,  but  this  is  but  a 
continuation  of  a  condition  that  was  quite  common 
all  over  Europe  in  an  earlier  age.  It  is  difficult  in- 
deed for  one  who  is  at  all  acquainted  with  history  to 
grow  enthusiastic  over  'the  good  old  time  religion.' 


^  For  a  brief  account,   see  the  New  International  Enclycopoedia. 
2  For  a  brief  account,   see  the  New  International  Enclycopoedia. 


[27] 


PROGRESS  IN  GENERAL 


"As  we  survey  the  spectacle  of  the  past,  we  are  impressed 
that  the  study  of  history  is  the  strongest  evidence  of  God. 
We  hear  no  argument  from  design,  but  we  feel  the  breath 
of  the  designer.  We  see  the  Universal  life  molding  the 
individual  lives,  the  one  will  dominating  the  many  wills, 
the  infinite  wisdom  utilizing  the  finite  folly,  the  changeless 
truth  permeating  the  restless  error,  the  boundless  beneficence 
bringing  blessing  out  of  all." 

Bev.  George  McUheson,  D.  D. 

"The  Christian  church  undertakes  no  impossible  task.  It 
summons  men  to  devotion  to  no  impracticable  ideal.  A 
Christian  world  is  not  only  practicable,  —  in  the  long  run  it 
will  be  found  that  no  other  sort  is  practicable." 

Charles  A.  Ellwood, 
The  Reconstruction  of  Religion. 

"The  twentieth  century  has  dawned  with  much  to  en- 
courage us.  The  deadening  pall  of  materialism  ...  is 
being  lifted,  while  on  every  side  is  seen  an  eager  craving 
for  a  religion  which  will  both  satisfy  the  mind  and 
strengthen  the  soul  of  man." 

Micou,  —  Basic  Ideas  in  Religion,  p.  3. 


CHAPTER  IV 
Progtress  in  General 

NOTE  first  the  encouraging  side  of  the  numerical 
growth  of  our  Master's  Kingdom.  Take  a 
general  view  of  this  growth.  The  impression  will  be 
sufficiently  accurate  for  our  purpose  if  we  give  the 
figures  in  round  numbers.  At  the  end  of  the  first 
century  of  the  Christian  era  there  were  500,000 
followers  of  Christ.  At  the  end  of  the  second  century 
there  were  2,000,000.  At  the  end  of  the  third  5,000,- 
000.  At  the  end  of  the  fourth,  10,000,000.  At  the 
end  of  the  tenth,  50,000,000.  At  the  end  of  the 
fifteenth,  100,000,000.  At  the  end  of  the  eighteenth, 
200,000,000.  At  the  end  of  the  nineteenth,  500,000,- 
000.    In  1920  about  600,000,000. 

It  is  estimated  that  the  number  of  conversions  to 
Christianity  during  the  fifty  years  ending  in  1850  was 
greater  than  during  the  first  sixteen  centuries;  that 
the  number  during  the  twenty  years  ending  in  1870 
was  greater  than  during  the  fifty  years  before;  and 
that  the  conversions  during  the  single  year  1890  were 
fifty  per  cent  greater  than  the  number  of  nominal 
Christians  during  the  first  century  of  the  Christian 
era.  During  the  five  year  period  from  1880  to  1886 
there  was  a  gain  of  40,000,000,  that  is,  a  larger  gain 
than  was  made  during  the  first  nine  centuries  of  the 
Christian  history.    But  the  chief  gain  of  Christianity 


RELIGIOUS  OPTIMISM 

has  been  since  1890.  Indeed  the  first  twenty  years  of 
this  century  marks  as  great  a  gain  as  the  first  seven- 
teen hundred  years  of  the  Christian  era.  The  gain  in 
church  membership  last  year,  1921,  in  the  United 
States  alone,  was  over  1,000,000.  In  other  words, 
the  last  twelve  months  witnessed  in  a  single  country 
as  great  a  gain  in  the  Christian  ranks  as  the  first  one 
hundred  and  fifty  years  of  the  Christian  era.  A 
single  denomination,  the  Baptist,  including  Canada 
and  the  United  States,  report  a  gain  of  a  million 
members  from  1918  to  1921.  This  denomination  now 
numbers  over  8,000,000.  It  took  220  years  for  them 
t'O  gain  their  first  million,  20  years  to  gain  their  sec- 
ond, 10  years  to  gain  their  third,  8  years  to  gain  their 
fourth,  9  years  to  gain  their  fifth,  7  years  to  gain 
their  sixth,  5  years  to  gain  their  seventh,  and  3  years 
to  gain  their  eighth. 

But  this  in  no  measure  represents  the  entire  growth 
of  Christianity.  During  the  rapid,  extensive  move- 
ment it  has  been  v/orking  itself  —  its  spirit  and  truth 
— into  music,  painting,  poetry,  —  all  forms  of  art 
and  literature  and  calling  to  its  support,  as  will 
appear  further  on  in  this  discussion,  scores  of  addi- 
tional agencies  and  institutions  that  will  very  mater- 
ially help  in  future  conquests. 

Furthermore,  we  should  hold  in  mind  that  ''Where- 
soever Christianity  has  breathed,  it  has  accelerated 
the  movement  of  humanity,  it  has  quickened  the  pulse 
of  life,  it  has  stimulated  the  incentive  to  thought,  it 
has  turned  the  passions  into  peace,  it  has  warmed  the 
heart  into  brotherhood,  it  has  fanned  the  imagination 

[30] 


PROGRESS  IN  GENERAL 

into  genius,  it  has  freshened  the  soul  into  purity. 
The  progress  of  Christian  Europe  has  been  the  pro- 
gress of  intellect  over  force,  of  political  right  over 
arbitrary  power,  of  human  liberty  over  the  chains  of 
slavery,  of  moral  law  over  social  corruption,  of  order 
over  anachy,  of  enlightenment  over  ignorance,  of  life 
over  death,"  and  of  right  over  might  and  love  over 
hate. 

Roughly  speaking  the  Christian  Constituency  of  the 

world  today  is 875,000,000 

Protestants 460,000,000 

Roman  Catholics 290,000,000 

Eastern  Catholics 125,000,000 

The  leading  Protestant  denominations  number: 

Lutherans 190,000,000 

Methodists 40,000,000 

Baptists    37,000,000 

Presbyterians    30,000,000 

Church  of  England 20,000,000 

Congregationalists    7,000,000 

Disciples  of  Christ 3,500,000 

In  the  above  we  have  multiplied  the  protestant 
membership  by  2.8  to  secure  the  church  constituency. 
This  was  not  done  with  either  the  Roman  or  Eastern 
Catholic  statistics. 

The  definition  of  the  term  'Constituency'  is  varied. 
De^fining  it  as  "all  those  who  by  birthright,  or  sym- 
pathetic interest,  as  well  as  by  actual  enrolled  mem- 
bership, hold  some  form  of  denominational  religious 
faith,  careful  study  of  the  population  of  the  United 
States  has  brought  some  good  statisticians  to  the  con- 

[31] 


RELIGIOUS  OPTIMISM 

elusion  that  the  figures  of  the  Roman  Catholic,  East- 
ern Orthodox,  Latter  Day  Saints  and  Salvation  army 
presented  in  the  Year  Book  represent  constituency 

Dr.  Walter  Laidlaw  of  New  York,  who  has 

had  large  experience  as  a  statistician  of  the  New  York 
Federation  of  Churches  and  in  the  Census  Bureau  of 
the  United  States,  has  demonstrated  through  varied 
tests  that  a  multiple  of  2.8  upon  protestant  member- 
ship figures  is  approximately  correct."^  We  have 
simply  used  this  multiple  upon  the  protestant  re- 
ligious statistics  of  the  world.  It  is  admitted  that  the 
multiple  used  in  the  United  States  may  not  hold  good 
in  other  countries.  While  not  accurate,  it  may  serve 
for  this  general  view  of  the  numerical  strength  of 
the  Christian  religion  in  the  world  today. 


i  The  Year  Book  of  the  Churches.      1921-22,  p.  262. 


[32] 


PROGRESS  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 


PROGRESS  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

"Let  us  with  caution  indulge  the  supposition  that  morality 
can  be  maintained  without  religion.  Reason  and  experience 
both  forbid  us  to  expect  that  national  morality  can  prevail 
in  exclusion  of  religious  principles." 

Washington,  in  his  "Farewell  Address/^ 

"The  future  of  the  United  States  during  the  next  half- 
century  sometimes  presents  itself  to  the  mind  as  a  struggle 
between  two  forces,  the  one  beneficial,  the  other  malign, 
the  one  striving  to  speed  the  Nation  on  to  a  port  of  safety 
before  this  time  of  trial  arrives,  the  other  to  retard  its 
progress,  so  that  the  tempest  may  be  upon  it  before  the  port 
is  reached." 

Lord  Bryce. 


CHAPTER  V 

Progress  in  the  United  States 

IF  WE  become  more  specific  and  glance  at  the  his- 
tory of  the  United  States,  we  shall  find  abundant 
ground  for  optimism  in  the  growth  of  Christianity 
in  our  own  country.  In  1800  there  was  one  church 
member  in  the  United  States  to  fourteen  of  the  popu- 
lation. In  1860  there  was  one  in  five.  In  1890  there 
was  one  in  four.  In  1900  there  was  one  in  three.  In 
1920  there  was  virtually  one  in  two,  there  being  in  the 
United  States  today  46,000,000  church  communicants. 

It  is  interesting  also  to  study  the  seating  capacity 
of  the  churches  of  the  United  States.  In  1890  the  seat- 
ing capacity  was  43,000,000.  In  1906  it  was  58,000,- 
000.  This  is  an  increase  of  virtually  1,000,000  per 
year,  or  thirty-five  per  cent  in  sixteen  years.  In 
1916  the  seating  capacity  of  our  churches  had  run 
up  to  about  72,000,000. "^  At  the  same  annual  increase, 
we  would  now  have  a  church  seating  capacity  in  the 
United  States  of  about  84,000,000. 

In  this  country  we  have  been  building  new  churches 
on  an  average  at  the  rate  of  eight  every  day  since 
the  opening  of  the  twentieth  century,  until  we  have 
reached  the  enormous  seating  capacity  just  mentioned. 
It  is  little  wonder  that  there  are  some  empty  benches 
at  some  of  our  church  services.  It  is  better  to  count 
noses  than  empty  benches.  By  such  a  count  you 
would  find  forty  or  fifty  million  of  our  people  in 
some  religious  service  on  a  single  Lord's  day.  One 
difference   between  the   ''old  time"   and  the   "new 


1  See  The  World  Alamanac. 

[35] 


RELIGIOUS  OPTIMISM 

time''  church  is,  in  the  old  days  it  was  usually  cus- 
tomary to  hold  but  one  service  on  Sunday  and  the 
minister  would  come  once  in  two  weeks  or  once  a 
month.  Now  we  hold  four  and  five,  with  virtually 
turn-over  congregations  every  Sunday. 

To  look  in  on  a  Sunday  morning  church  service 
and  count  one  hundred  fifty  people  present  does  not 
tell  the  entire  story.  Perhaps  a  Sunday  School  of  one 
hundred  seventy-five  has  just  been  dismissed.  A  group 
of  fifty  or  seventy-five  young  people  will  gather  at 
seven,  and  an  evening  congregation  at  eight  of  one 
hundred  twenty-five  people.  So  that  some  three  hun- 
and  fifty  or  four  hundred  people  have  attended  a  re- 
ligious service  in  that  church  on  a  single  day.  We 
might  wish  that  they  would  do  so,  and  it  might  be 
helpful  to  do  so,  but  people  are  not  necessarily  lost  if 
they  do  not  attend  three  or  four  religious  services 
every  week. 

Some  will  maintain  that  we  are  building  too  many 
churches,  —  increasing  seating  capacity  beyond  our 
need.  Protestant  church  buildings  are  being  launched 
this  year  to  cost  $10,000,000,  $12,000,000  and  even 
$20,000,000,  and  plans  for  greatly  increased  seating 
capacity  are  being  projected.  We  will  soon  be  build- 
ing churches  in  the  United  States  at  the  rate  of 
ten  and  twelve  a  day,  and  on  the  foreign  field  at  fif- 
teen and  twenty  a  day.  But  we  can  realize  the  need 
when  we  recall  the  fact  that  the  church  constituency 
in  this  country  alone  is  now  reported  at  96,000,000. 

Many  states  now  have  enough  automobiles  to  put 
their   entire   population,  —  every  man,   woman   and 

[36] 


PROGRESS  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

child  —  in  their  cars  at  one  time  and  go  off,  if  de- 
sired, on  a  pleasure  trip.  We  still  lack  some  12,- 
000,000  seatings  to  accomodate  at  one  time  the  entire 
church  constituency  of  this  nation.  We  lack  27,- 
000,000  seatings  to  accomodate  the  entire  population 
of  our  country  at  church.  We  seldom  need  to  seat 
the  entire  church  constituency  at  a  single  service, 
but  practically  all  churches  have  several  events  an- 
nually that  overtax  their  seating  capacity. 

Our  effort  to  build  a  nation  without  a  tax  supported 
church  was  something  entirely  new  in  history.  The 
wisest  ecclesiasts  of  Europe  declared  it  could  not  be 
done.  But  the  modern  religious  passion  in  America 
has  not  only  built  by  its  gifts  234,000  churches  at  a 
valuation  of  $1,736,524,916.00,'  but  is  sustaining 
200,000  ministers  at  an  annual  expenditure  of  almost 
$500,000,000,''  maintaining  and  endowing  five  hun- 
dred Christian  colleges,  countless  hospitals  and  ben- 
evolences, pouring  some  $41,000,000  into  foreign  mis- 
sionary enterprises;  and  at  the  same  time  building 
new  churches  at  the  present  rate  of  eight  every  day. 
with  an  average  seating  capacity  of  about  four  hun- 
dred fifty  each,  and  people  have  been  joining  these 
churches  for  the  past  five  years  at  the  rate  of  twenty- 
two  hundred  per  day,  and  for  the  past  year  at  the 
rate  of  twenty-five  hundred  every  day. 

The  stock  capitalization  of  the  United  States  Steel 
Trust  is  reported  at  $868,583,000.     This  makes  the 


1  Church  property  1906  was  valued  at  $935,942,578.  Church 
property  1916  was  valued  at  $1,301,393,687.  At  the  same  rate  of 
increase  property  1922  would  be  valued  at  $1,736,524,916. 

2  This  expenditure  was  $488,424,000  in   1^21. 

[37] 


RELIGIOUS  OPTIMISM 

Christian  Churcli  by  far  the  largest  business  enter- 
prise in  the  United  States,  and  with  its  200,000  regu- 
lar ministers  together  with  its  volunteer  and  unsalar- 
ied workers,  in  forces  employed,  it  out-numbers  by  far 
any  trust  or  enterprise  in  the  nation.  Certainly 
nothing  in  history  can  compare  with  the  triumphant 
progress  of  Christianity  during  the  generation  in 
which  we  live.  No  workers  in  the  Master's  Kingdom 
have  had  on  the  one  hand  so  little  to  discourage,  and 
on  the  other  so  much  to  inspire  as  we  whose  joy  and 
privilege  it  is  to  give  ourselves  to  the  rapidly  advanc- 
ing cause  of  our  Christ.  If  we  can  not  be  optimistic 
today,  it  is  either  because  of  our  ignorance  of  the 
past  or  of  the  present  achievements  of  Christianity, 
or  because  we  are  bom  with  pessimistic  tendencies. 
The  Year  Book  of  the  Churches,  1921-22  points  out 
that  of  every  106  persons  in  the  United  States,  ten 
only  have  no  religious  affiliation  and  ninety-six  are 
affiliated  through  membership,  financial  support,  at- 
tendance or  by  other  ties  with  some  religious  body. 

The  year  book  gives  the  total  church  population  as 
follows : 

Protestants 75,099,489 

Roman  Catholics 17,885,646 

Jewish 1,600,000 

Latter  Day  Saints 587,918 

Eastern   Orthodox    411,054 

Of  the  protestant  constituency,  the  Methodists  num- 
ber    22,171,959 

The   Baptists    21,938,700 

It  will  be  observed  that  both  these  Protestant  bodies 

[38] 


PROGRESS  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

outnumber  the  Roman  Catholics  in  this  country. 
There  has  usually  been  an  apparent  discrepency  as 
already  noted  between  Protestant  and  Catholic  sta- 
tistics in  that  the  Catholics  report  their  constituency, 
the  Protestants  only  their  communicant  members. 
The  foregoing  figures  reduce  all  to  the  basis  of  con- 
stituency. 

Comparisons  of  1921  totals  with  United  States 
Religious  Census,  1916. 

s.  s.  s. 

Churches  Ministers      Members        Schools       Members 
1921  233,999      199,331      46,242,130      199,154      23,944,438 

1916  227,487      191,796      41,926,854      194,759      19,935,890 

five  years       6,537  7,537        4,315,276  4,295        4,008,548 

An  exact  basis  of  comparison  is  not  available  for 
the  growth  of  the  churches  for  the  year  1921  over 
1920,  but  the  churches  have  during  the  past  two  years 
turned  their  war  losses  into  a  decided  gain,  the  gain 
being  clearly  more  than  one  million  in  1921.^ 

The  largest  Protestant  groups  are: 

Members  Constituency 

Methodists 7,918,557  22,171,959 

Baptists    7,835,250  20,938,700 

Lutherans    2,466,645  6,905,598 

Presbyterians 2,384,683  6,777,112 

Disciples 1,210,023  3,388,064 

Protestant  Episcopal  . .  1,104,029  3,090,481 

The  Protestant  bodies  with  a  constituency  of  over 
a  million  are : 
Methodist  Episcopal 3,938,655    11,048,234 

-  Year  Book  of  the  Churches,  1921-22. 
[39] 


RELIGIOUS  OPTIMISM 

South  Baptist  Convention  ....3,199,005  8,957,214 

National  Baptist  Con.  (colored)  3,116,325  8,725,710 

Methoodist  Episcopal  (South)   2,346,067  6,560,987 

Presbyterian  U.  S.  A.  (North)  1,722,361  4,822,610 

Northern  Bap.  Convention  . . .  .1,253,878  3,510,853 

Disciples 1,210,023  3,388,634 

Protestant  Episcopal 1,104,029  3,090,481 

Congregational   819,225  2,293,728 

The  demand  for  religious  reading  is  also  on  the 
increase.  In  1880,  the  circulation  of  religious  journals 
was  2,091,866  copies;  in  1890,  the  circulation  had 
increased  to  4,805,433;  in  1920  it  had  increased  to 
7,000,928. 


[4o] 


MEN  IN  THE  CHURCH 


"It  is  one  of  the  popular  fallacies  of  our  times,  accepted 
in  no  few  quarters  without  anything  like  thorough  investi- 
gation, that  men  do  not  go  to  church  nowadays.  It  is 
readily  acknowledged  that  there  is  a  place  for  such  in  the 
Kingdom  of  God;  that  the  strongest  manhood  finds  play 
in  this  sphere  for  its  loftiest  potencies  of  body,  mind,  and 
spirit;  that  some  of  the  greatest  of  the  sons  of  men  have 
worn  out  their  noblest  forces  of  personality  and  power  in 
the  divine  service  and  wished  that  they  had  a  hundred-fold 
more  of  capability  to  dedicate  to  it.  It  is  freely  admitted 
that  while  the  blessed  religion  of  Jesus  Christ  is  a  religion 
for  human  weakness,  and  dependence,  and  sorrow,  and  sin, 
it  is  also  a  religion  for  human  strength  and  valor,  and  cour- 
age and  heroism;  indeed,  for  all  the  athletic  faculties  of 
human  nature." 

Kerr  Boyce  Tupper,  D.  D.,  LL.  D. 

"Do  you  think  that  the  church  is  neglected  today  f  was 
recently  asked  Dr.  S.  Parks  Cadman. 

* '  Yes  and  when  was  it  otherwise  ?  Neglect  and  persecu- 
tion have  been  her  lot,"  he  replied,  "But  she  lives  and 
states  perish." 

The  Brooklyn  Daily  Eagle,  Oct.  23,  1922. 


CHAPTER  VI 
Men  in  the  Church 

SOMETIMES  it  is  asked,  "Why  are  not  men  in 
the  church?"  The  answer  to  the  question  is, 
men  are  in  the  church,  and  they  are  to  be  found  in 
the  church  in  ever  increasing  ratios.  The  Govern- 
ment Census  Bureau  for  1906  shows  that  43.1  per 
cent  of  all  church  members  are  men.  In  the  Catholic 
Church  practically  half  the  communicants,  according 
to  this  report,  are  men, : —  49.3  per  cent. 

In  not  a  few  of  our  leading  city  congregations, 
more  men  may  be  found  in  attendance  than  women. 
This  is  reported  true  of  Tremont  Temple,  Boston; 
of  Madison  Square  Presbyterian  Church,  New  York 
City ;  of  the  Baptist  Temple,  Brooklyn.  A  few  years 
ago  I  worshipped  in  the  Auditorium,  Chicago,  where 
Gunsalus  used  to  hold  forth,  and  there  were  evidently 
more  men  than  women  in  the  audience. 

Men  have  only  recently  come  into  their  own  in 
church  work.  A  generation  ago  there  were  few 
brotherhoods,  no  Men's  Bible  classes,  or  great  con- 
ventions of  men  for  the  purpose  of  considering 
church  efficiency  and  for  formulating  world-wide  re- 
ligious programs.  Now  governors  and  lawmakers, 
bankers  and  editors,  high  school  and  university  pro- 
fessors—  the  leaders  of  our  nation  —  are  on  our 
church  boards  and  teaching  in  our  Sunday  Schools. 

[43] 


EELIGIOUS  OPTIMISM 

In  1915  a  laymen's  missionary  convention  was 
undertaken  in  Chicago.  It  was  started  with  consid- 
erable misgivings,  but  paid  registrations  reached  the 
astonishing  enrollment  of  4,556  men.  It  was  freely 
predicted  that  this  record  could  not  be  surpassed,  but 
the  next  year  at  Los  Angeles  another  was  undertaken 
and  the  paid  registrants  reached  6000  men,  many  of 
whom  had  travelled  across  the  Continent  to  reach  the 
seat  of  the  Convention. 

The  first  attempt  at  national  missionary  conven- 
tions was  during  the  year  1909-10  when  conventions 
were  held  in  70  cities  with  paid  registrations  of 
70,408.  Ten  years  later  in  69  cities  the  paid  regis- 
trations were  101,927  —  a  gain  of  forty-two  per  cent. 
The  number  of  laymen  who  made  addresses,  and 
assisted  in  such  movements  as  the  New  Era  and  the 
Centenary  is  entirely  beyond  accurate  estimation. 

The  religious  census  of  the  present  Congress  gives 
258  actual  church  members  out  of  435  congressmen 
and  only  121  who  failed  to  report  some  church  affilia- 
tion. Of  96  senators  there  are  58  who  are  church 
members  and  only  27  who  fail  to  give  some  church 
affiliation.  As  this  shows  a  considerably  higher  ratio 
than  that  of  the  church  membership  compared  with 
the  entire  population,  it  would  indicate  that  voters 
regard  church  membership  as  evidence  of  character, 
or  at  least  as  fitness  for  office. 

Only  a  short  time  ago  the  Social  Service  Depart- 
ment of  the  Congregational  churches  published  the 
result  of  a  survey.  It  deals  with  different  phases  of 
church   attendance,   but   within   the   bounds   of  the 

[44] 


MEN  IN  THE  CHURCH 

survey  which  included  Tennessee,  Missouri,  Kansas, 
New  York,  and  Maine,  it  indicates  that :  Of  men  with 
college  training,  only  three  per  cent  in  the  whole 
survey  are  reported  as  non-churchgoers;  of  high 
school  training,  only  ten  per  cent ;  of  common  school 
training,  only  twenty-six  per  cent,  and  of  the  illiter- 
ate, sixty-one  percent.  The  report  places  emphasis 
upon  the  fact  that  lodges  and  other  societies  do 
not  seem  to  draw  persons  away  from  the  church  ser- 
vices. It  was  found  that  the  large  proportion  of  men 
who  are  active  in  other  social  organizations  are  also 
active  in  the  church.  Only  twenty-one  per  cent  of 
those  active  in  the  lodge  or  grange  were  found  not 
active  in  the  church. 

A  leading  church  paper  recently  printed  the  follow- 
ing as  indicating  the  religious  activities  in  which  men 
engage.  A  study  -of  700  men's  classes  in  the  Northern 
Baptist  Convention  shows :  ' '  One  hundred  and  sixty- 
eight  report  participation  in  the  general  religious 
work  of  the  church  including  the  ''every-member" 
canvass,  *'  26  conduct  evangelistic  services,  21  educa- 
tional programs,  168  social  service  studies,  25  commun- 
ity service,  14  conduct  lecture  courses,  25  athletic 
games,  30  interested  in  civic  affairs,  4  have  assumed 
specific  financial  burdens  of  the  church,  10  provide 
public  programs  of  debate  and  entertainment,  5  con- 
duct weekly  forums,  3  in  welfare  work,  1  in  American- 
ization work,  5  have  employment  bureaus,  20  engaged 
in  benevolent  work,  2  have  personal  work  teams,  8 
have  systematic  sick  visitation,  6  have  gospel  teams, 
13  help  in  boys'  work,  2  active  in  law  enforcement 

[45] 


RELIGIOUS  OPTIMISM 

and  560  have  regular  Bible-study  classes.'**  This  list 
not  only  shows  what  men  are  doing,  but  points  out 
also  how  varied  are  the  activities  of  modem  Chris- 
tianity. 

We  drop  into  the  habit  of  carelessly  thinking  that 
our  young  men  are  not  religious,  that  they  are  not 
to  be  found  in  the  church.  A  study  of  the  problem 
clearly  shows  that  such  impressions  are  not  well 
founded. 

This  is  the  young  man's  age  in  religion,  as  well  as 
along  other  lines  of  service  and  influence.  In  a  recent 
Epworth  League  Rally,  one  thousand  young  people 
crowded  into  the  largest  available  auditorium  and 
still  there  were  four  hundred  who  could  not  get  in,  to 
make  up  an  over-flow  meeting.  The  National  Con- 
vention of  the  Baptist  Young  Peoples'  Union  recently 
held  in  St.  Paul,  reached  the  astounding  enrollment 
of  9,000.  There  are  twenty  times  as  many  young  men 
in  our  churches  now  as  there  were  church  members  all 
told  at  the  opening  of  the  nineteenth  century.  There 
are  about  20,000,000  young  men  in  the  country  be- 
tween the  ages  of  sixteen  and  thirty-five.  Of  these  over 
8,000,000  are  in  our  churches.  From  these  figures,  it 
would  appear  that  just  about  as  large  a  ratio  of  our 
young  men  are  in  our  churches  as  any  other  class  of 
our  population.  Consider  in  this  connection  also  the 
male  youth  connected  with  our  Sunday  Schools  with 
their  24,000,000  members,  with  the  Salvation  Army 
with  its  11,000  corps,  the  Gideon  Movement  with  its 
thousands  of  young  travelling  men,  the  Young  Men's 


1  Northwestern  Christian  Advocate. 
[46] 


MEN  IN  THE  CHURCH 

Christian  Association  with  nearly  1,000,000  members. 
For  the  year  1921,  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Asso- 
ciation reports  a  total  attendance  upon  Bible  and  re- 
ligious meetings  of  8,880,800,  an  increase  over  1920 
of  738,723.  The  number  of  church  members  among 
college  students  would  also  indicate  that  there  are  as 
large  a  per  cent  of  young  men  in  our  churches  and 
taking  a  part  in  active  Christian  work  as  of  any  other 
group.  "^ 

We  are  too  much  inclined  to  make  all  such  com- 
parisons with  the  total  of  our  population.  We  fail 
to  remember  that  there  are  millions  of  Protestant 
children  who  are  too  young  for  church  membership. 
Protestant  children  below  eight  or  ten  should  be  de- 
ducted from  the  entire  population  before  comparisons 
are  made,  if  we  desire  a  true  ratio  of  church  members 
and  non-church  members.  Making  this  allowance,  we 
can  safely  assert  that  church  membership  today  is 
over  fifty  per  cent  of  the  church  population.  Well 
meaning  men  of  the  very  finest  gifts  and  training  in 
all  walks  of  life  are  waking  up  to  the  fact  that  they 
can  invest  their  lives  nowhere  else  where  they  will 
count  so  much  for  human  advancement  as  along  the 
line  of  some  type  of  religious  service.  Hence  they 
are  uniting  with  the  church  and  offering  their  services 
in  greater  numbers  than  ever  before  known  in  the 
history  of  the  Christian  religion. 


See  Chapter  X. 


[47] 


A  MIRACLE  IN  BOOK  MAKING 


"The  hundred  best  books,  the  hundred  best  pictures,  the 
hundred  greatest  strains  of  music  are  all  in  the  Bible  and  are 
all  derived  from  it." 

Farrar. 
The  Bible  Its  Meaning  and  Supremacy. 

. .  "Now,  by  common  consent  of  all  the  great  religious 
thinkers  of  our  civilization,  the  supreme  religious  master- 
pieces of  our  cultural  tradition  are  embodied  in  the  unique 
collection  of  literature  which  we  term  the  Bible.  The  ethical 
and  religious  value  of  the  Bible,  especially  of  the  Gospels, 
for  the  establishment  of  Christian  civilization,  cannot  be 
doubted.  Other  things  being  equal,  a  people  will  be  Chris- 
tian directly  in  proportion  to  the  attention  which  they  pay 
to  the  teachings  of  Jesus  as  found  in  the  Bible." 

Charles  A.  Elwood. 
The  Reconstruction  of  Religion, 


CHAPTER  VII 

A  Miracle  in  Book  Making 

PERHAPS  nothing  constitutes  a  better  index  to 
the  rapid  strides  in  the  advancement  of  the 
Church  of  God  than  the  demand  for  and  spread  of 
Bibles.  Much  is  said  about  the  ignorance  of  the 
Bible  in  these  modern  days.  Fun  is  made  of  the 
answers  certain  high  school  and  college  classes  have 
given  about  the  Bible.  There  is  lamentable  ignorance 
on  the  part  of  the  public  in  general  about  this  great 
literature.  But  in  what  particular  period  in  the 
past,  at  least  so  far  as  America  is  concerned,  did  the 
public  know  more  about  the  Bible  than  at  the  present 
time?  When  did  college  and  high  school  students 
know  so  much  about  it?  There  was  in  the  past,  on 
the  part  of  a  few,  a  superficial  knowledge  of  the 
Scriptures  that  enabled  them  freely  to  quote  detached 
texts,  but  there  was  little  deep  and  comprehensive 
knowledge  of  the  true  spirit  of  the  Book  of  Books 
among  the  masses  of  the  people. 

It  is  true  that  when  the  Bible  was  first  printed  in 
the  vernacular  English  and  German,  also  when 
Erasmus'  Greek  translation  appeared  they  were 
eagerly  sought  and  passionately  devoured,  but  this 
carries  us  back  ten  and  fifteen  generations.  This  was 
a  time  of  spiritual  starvation,  when,  according  to  the 
historian  Froude,  ''The  Christian  religion  as  taught 

[49] 


RELIGIOUS  OPTIMISM 

and  practiced  in  Western  Europe  consisted  of  the 
mass  and  the  confessional,  of  elaborate  ceremonials, 
rituals,  processions,  pilgrimages,  prayers  to  the  vir- 
gin and  the  saints,  with  dispensations  and  indulgences 
for  laws  broken  or  duties  left  undone.  Of  the  Gospels 
and  Epistles  so  much  only  was  known  to  the  laity  as 
was  read  in  the  church  services,  and  that  intoned  as 
if  to  be  purposely  unintelligible  to  the  understanding. 
Of  the  rest  of  the  Bible  nothing  was  known  at  all, 
because  nothing  was  supposed  to  be  necessary.  Copies 
of  the  Scripture  were  rare,  shut  up  in  convent  librar- 
ies, and  studied  only  by  professional  theologians; 
while  conventional  interpretations  were  attached  to 
the  text  which  corrupted  or  distorted  its  meaning." 

Indeed,  this  is  the  age  of  Bible  reading,  Bible  study, 
and  Bible  distribution.  Never  was  there  a  time  when 
so  wide  interest  was  manifested  in  this  Book  of  Books. 
Never  was  there  a  time  when  its  teachings  were  so 
thoroughly  wrought  into  the  mind,  thought,  and 
ideals  of  mankind  as  they  are  today.  The  Bible  now 
is  studied  for  every  purpose;  for  devotion,  for 
knowledge,  for  literary  models,  for  individual  and 
social  ideals,  for  criticism,  as  never  before.  Its  spirit, 
ideals,  matter,  rhetorical  figures  and  allusions  may  be 
found  in  newspapers,  magazines,  and  practically  all 
books  worth  reading. 

It  is  estimated  that  at  the  opening  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  there  were  not  over  4,000,000  copies  of  the 
Bible  extant  in  all  the  world.  Indeed,  not  more 
than  6,000,000  copies  of  the  Bible  had  been  circulated 
before  1800.    Now  there  are  perhaps  over  600,000,000 

[50] 


A  MIRACLE  IN  BOOK  MAKING 

copies.  That  means,  if  you  should  divide  the  entire 
population  of  the  world  into  families  of  three  each, 
there  are  enough  Bibles  now  scattered  over  the  earth 
to  furnish  every  family  in  the  world  a  copy.  It  may 
be  too  much  to  say  of  our  own  country,  that  there  is  a 
Bible  in  the  hands  of  every  man  and  woman,  but  it  is 
not  too  much  to  say  that  there  is  a  Bible  within  the 
reach  of  virtually  every  one  in  America. 

This  was  not  true  in  the  past.  Bibles  were  so  few 
about  a  century  ago,  that  the  inauguration  service  of 
a  certain  Governor  of  Louisiana  was  interrupted  be- 
cause a  copy  -of  the  Scriptures  could  not  be  found 
upon  which  to  take  the  oath  of  office.  A  Catholic 
missionary  finally  saved  the  day  by  furnishing  a  copy 
of  the  Latin  Vulgate  and  the  ceremony  was  com- 
pleted, with  this  borrowed  volume  printed  in  a  dead 
language. 

The  annual  sale  of  the  Bible  has  reached  the  enor- 
mous figure  of  over  30,000,000.  In  other  words,  some 
seven  times  as  many  Bibles  are  now  being  sold  in  a 
single  twelve  months  as  there  existed  in  all  the  world 
at  the  opening  of  the  past  century.  More  Bibles  were 
sold  during  the  first  twenty  years  of  the  twentieth 
century  than  during  the  first  eighteen  centuries  of 
the  Christian  era;  perhaps  even  more  than  during 
the  first  nineteen  centuries. 

The  Bible  is  now  printed  in  the  language  of  1,- 
400,000,000,  or  in  the  languages  of  seven-eighths  of  all 
the  people  in  the  world.  In  whole  and  in  parts  it  is 
now  published  in  about  six  hundred  tongues  and 
dialects,  having  been  put  into  some  seventy-five  new 

[51] 


RELIGIOUS  OPTIMISM 

dialects  in  the  past  two  decades.  A  century  ago  it  was 
printed  in  about  forty  versions.  This  is  little  short 
of  a  miracle  in  book  making,  sale  and  distribution. 

The  two  great  Bible  Societies,  —  the  British,  foun- 
ded 1804,  and  the  American,  founded  1816  —  have 
published  and  distributed  just  about  500,000,000  cop- 
ies of  this  Book  of  Books.  But  this  takes  no  account 
of  the  smaller  Bible  societies.  A  conference  of  Home 
Agency  Secretaries,  nine  in  number,  held  in  New 
York,  reported  a  remarkable  advance  in  the  circula- 
tion of  the  Scriptures  for  1913.  The  total  figures 
reached  1,075,459.  This  takes  no  account  of  the  gen- 
eral circulation  of  the  American  Bible  Society  in 
foreign  lands,  to  the  trade,  or  circulation  effected  by 
auxiliary  and  other  local  Bible  societies.  The  total 
is  an  advance  'of  280,222  in  these  home  agencies  over 
the  preceding  year. 

You  could  combine  the  annual  sale  of  the  one 
hundred  most  popular  books  in  the  world,  and  the 
sale  of  the  Bible  would  surpass  this  combined  out- 
put. We  talk  about  the  ''best  sellers."  No  book  ap- 
proaches the  Bible  as  a  ''best  seller."  The  number 
of  complete  Scriptures  sold  by  all  Bible  Societies  and 
publishers  during  1914  was  over  32,000,000.  Harold 
Bell  Wright  is  a  popular  writer.  In  seventeen  years, 
eight  of  his  publications  reached  a  combined  sale  of 
10,000,000,  —  less  than  a  third  of  the  sale  of  the  Bible 
in  one  year.  Because  of  a  large  order  by  the  Italian 
Government  of  3,000,000  copies,  and  of  the  entrance  of 
our  government  into  the  Great  War,  which  increased 
the  sale  by  1,000,000,  The  Man  Without  a  Country, 

[52] 


A  MIRACLE  IN  BOOK  MAKING 

—  by  Edward  Everet  Hale,  —  has  reached  a  total  sale 
of  about  10,000,000  since  its  publication ;  that  is,  about 
one-third  of  the  Bible's  annual  sale.  The  world  never 
before  witnessed  anything  like  this  in  book  making 
and  book  distribution.  The  Bible  is  not  only  the 
Book  of  Books  in  the  sense  that  it  is  our  greatest  and 
most  valuable  literary  treasure,  but  it  is  destined  to 
become  the  Universal  Book,  —  the  one  bo'ok  that  is 
indispensable  to  every  member  of  the  human  family. 

As  we  hold  in  mind  —  or  strive  to,  for  the  task  is 
entirely  beyond  human  comprehension  —  this  annual 
output  of  from  25,000,000  to  30,000,000  copies  of  the 
Bible,  it  is  well  to  remember  the  tremendous  influence 
it  has  exerted  in  the  past,  that  it  has  not  lost  its 
power,  that  its  influence  will  widen  somewhat  in  ratio 
with  its  increased  distribution.  To  say  nothing  of  its 
influence  through  music  and  painting,  note  only  how 
it  stimulates  thought  and  influences  literature. 

The  Bible  has  been,  and  still  is,  our  greatest  thought 
provoker.  It  has  quickened  more  mental  activity  than 
any  other  and  perhaps  all  other  books  combined,  at 
least  in  the  realm  of  Christendom.  The  literature 
that  has  flowed  from  its  pages  directly  and  indirectly 
has  perhaps  been  as  great  as  that  which  has  been 
inspired  by  nature  through  the  natural  sciences  — 
and  the  literature  on  any  one  of  the  sciences,  as 
chemistry,  botany,  geology,  astronomy  —  will  now 
surpass  in  volume  the  combined  classics  of  Greece  and 
Rome.  ''The  Bible  has  set  the  Christian  world  to 
thinking  and  kept  it  thinking  for  nearly  two  thou- 
sand   years.     The    unpublished    literature    of    the 

[53] 


RELIGIOUS  OPTIMISM 

Christian  pulpit  surpasses  in  volume  all  the  literature 
of  all  nations."^  But  the  miracle  of  it  is  that  the 
Bible  remains  unexhausted  and  inexhaustible.  It  is 
estimated  that  as  many  as  300  biographies  of  Christ 
have  been  written  in  a  single  generation,  and  that 
over  12,000  books  have  been  written  in  an  effort  to 
explain  the  book  of  Revelation,  and  that  over  60,000 
commentaries  have  been  written  on  the  Scriptures  or 
on  parts  of  them. 

An  examination  of  books  on  Christ,  the  Bible,  and 
of  a  religious  nature  that  are  coming  from  the  modern 
press  will  show  that  this  number  is  in  no  measure 
abated.  Lessing  declares  that  *'the  Scriptures  have 
occupied  the  mind  more  than  all  books,  have  enlight- 
ened more  than  all  books."  Says  Robert  Louis  Stev- 
enson, speaking  of  the  Bible:  *' Written  in  the  East 
these  characters  live  ever  in  the  West ;  written  in  one 
province,  they  pervade  the  world;  penned  in  rude 
times,  they  are  prized  more  and  more  as  civilization 
advances;  product  of  antiquity,  they  come  home  to 
the  business  and  bosoms  of  men,  women  and  children 
in  modern  days." 

Tennyson  quotes  from  or  alludes  to  its  pages  some 
400  times;  Ruskin  was  one  of  the  very  greatest 
masters  of  English  prose.  But  according  to  James 
Mudge  there  are  450  Biblical  quotations  and  allusions 
in  Modern  Painters  and  600  in  Fors  Clavigena 
and  there  must  be  many  thousand  in  his  entire  works. 
In  twenty-four  of  Bacon's  essays  may  be  found 
seventy-two  allusions  to  the  sacred  page.     ''Shakes- 


^  Austin  Phelps. 

[54] 


A  MIRACLE  IN  BOOK  MAKING 

peare,  the  first  literary  genius  of  the  world/' 
says  Emerson,  "the  highest  in  whom  the  moral  is  not 
the  predominating  element,  leans  on  the  Bible;  his 
poetry  presupposes  it.  If  we  examine  this  brilliant 
influence : —  Shakespeare  —  as  it  lies  in  our  mind,  we 
shall  find  it  reverent,  not  only  in  the  letter  of  this 
book,  but  of  the  whole  frame  of  society  which  stood 
in  Europe  upon  it."  Over  500  Biblical  quotations 
and  allusions  may  be  found  in  Shakespeare's  works. 

The  Bible  inspired  a  large  number  of  Browning's 
finest  poems.  It  inspired  Tennyson's  In  Memoriam, 
Thackeray's  Vanity  Fair,  Wordsworth's  Ode  to  Im- 
mortality, Byron's  P-oem  on  Darkness,  Dickens'  Tale 
of  Two  Cities,  Dante's  Inferno,  Bunyan's  Pilgrim's 
Progress,  Bryant's  Thanatopsis, "^Whittiev's  Eternal 
Goodness,  and  literally  hundreds  of  other  productions 
of  the  highest  literary  merit.  In  the  present,  as  well 
as  in  the  past,  poet,  painter,  sculptor,  musician,  his- 
torian, orator,  statesman,  journalist,  reformers  and 
authors  in  every  department  of  literature,  turn  to 
the  pages  of  this  marvelous  book  for  inspiration, 
material  and  for  their  noblest  ideals. 

It  has  been  said  that  the  Anglo-Saxon  civilization 
has  only  two  really  great  books,  —  the  one  this  civil- 
ization made,  that  is  Shakespeare;  the  other  made 
Anglo-Saxon  civilization,  that  is  the  Bible.  All  this 
means  that  wherever  the  English  language  and  Eng- 
lish literature  go,  in  a  large  measure,  the  spirit  and 
ideals  of  the  Bible  go.  But  the  English  language  is 
used  now  by  40  per  cent  of  the  human  family,  and 


1  See  Pattison — "The  History  of  the  English  Bible"  p.  197. 
[55] 


RELIGIOUS  OPTIMISM 

two-thirds  or  more  of  all  the  great  magazines  and 
daily  papers  of  the  world  are  printed  in  this  language. 
What  this  Book  has  done  for  our  civilization,  it 
now  promises,  through  the  marvelous  success  of  the 
modern  missionary  movement,  to  do  in  a  large  way 
for  all  the  peoples  of  the  earth.  For  its  spirit,  moral 
standards  and  ideals  are  finding  their  way  into  the 
thought,  literature,  songs,  and  all  forms  of  expres- 
sion of  the  peoples  of  China,  India,  Africa,  and  the 
''Isles  of  the  Sea."  The  marvelous  demand  for  the 
Bible  in  these  modern  times  by  all  nations  does  not 
indicate  that  Christianity  is  waning,  but  rather  that 
it  is  enjoying  the  largest  measure  of  success  of  its 
history,  and  is  now  at  the  threshold  of  a  period  of 
progress  and  power  that  we  hardly  dreamed  of  in 
early  years. 


[56] 


OPEN  HANDED  RELIGION 


"And  He  looked  up  and  saw  the  rich  casting  their  gifts 
into  the  treasury.  And  He  saw  also  a  certain  poor  widow 
casting  in  hither  two  mites.  And  He  said,  'Of  a  truth  I 
say  unto  you,  that  this  poor  widow  hath  cast  in  more  than 
they  all.  For  all  these  have  of  their  abundance  cast  in 
unto  the  offerings  of  God;  but  she  of  her  penury  hath  cast 
in  all  the  living  that  she  had.' " 

Lulce  21:1-4 


CHAPTER  VIII 
Open-Handed  Religion 

THE  OLD  time  religion  was  not  generous.  There 
was,  to  be  sure,  a  certain  amount  of  indiscrimi- 
nate alms  giving,  but  very  little  real  and  intelligent 
generosity.  This  lack  in  the  past  of  open-handed 
helpfulness  so  common  today,  was  due  to  many 
causes,  only  two  of  which  need  be  mentioned.  Wealth 
in  the  form  of  money  was  not  abundant,  neither  was 
it  widely  distributed.  Moreover  the  appeal  of  the 
church  was  individualistic.  The  social  appeal  and 
outlook  of  modern  Christianity  is  essentially  a 
growth  of  the  past  fifty  years. 

Church  members  today  are  not  only  giving  liber- 
ally for  the  support  of  the  local  church  —  it  was  to 
this  that  the  old-time  giving  was  largely  confined — 
but  they  are  also  called  upon  to  support  a  score  of 
worthy  causes.  Besides  the  church  budget  proper,  a 
church  family  is  now  expected  to  give  to  the  Sunday 
School,  the  Young  People's  Society,  the  Ladies'  Aid, 
the  Women's  Foreign  Missionary  Society,  the 
Women's  Home  Missionary  Society,  the  General 
Home  and  Foreign  Missionary  Boards,  the  sustain- 
ing and  endowment  fund  of  the  Church  College,  the 
temperance  cause,  orphanages,  hospitals.  Old 
People's  Homes;  and  perhaps  also  to  a  local  Young 
Men's,  and  a  Young  Women's  Christian  Association 

[59] 


EELIGIOUS  OPTIMISM 

and  t'O  local  associated  charities.  In  these  modern 
times,  church  people  are  sustaining  all  these  and 
many  other  temporary  and  incidental  interests. 

It  was  freely  estimated  that  of  the  Great  War  re- 
lief funds,  the  Red  Cross,  the  Young  Men's  Chris- 
tian Association,  Knights  of  Columbus,  and 
Salvation  Army — funds  approximating  a  half  billion 
dollars — the  Church  people  gave  over  seventy-five 
per  cent  of  the  money  actually  paid  in.  The  Inter- 
Church  movement  proved  beyond  doubt  that  the 
real  givers  are  in  our  churches. 

If  private  fortunes  have  increased,  as  they  tell  us, 
a  thousand-fold  in  the  past  hundred  years  (the 
largest  private  fortunes  a  hundred  years  ago 
were  about  $250,000.00;  they  are  easily  now 
$250,000,000.00)  and  our  national  wealth  has  in- 
creased by  leaps  and  bounds.  Christian  giving  has  at 
least  kept  pace.  Nothing  else  has  saved  us  in  this 
industrial  age  from  becoming  grossly  materialistic. 

A  few  years  ago,  a  thousand  dollar  gift  for  a 
church  enterprise  was  regarded  generous.  Now, 
hundred  thousand  dollar  gifts  are  not  at  all  unusual. 
When  a  certain  church  in  New  York  City  was  about 
to  erect  a  new  building  at  an  estimated  cost  of 
$4,000,000,  the  Minister  frankly  declared  "the 
needed  amount  could  not  be  raised  on  subscriptions 
of  $5,000  and  $10,000 ;  it  would  require  subscriptions 
of  $100,000."  Indeed,  as  such  subscription  lists 
usually  run,  he  would  need  fifteen  $100,000  subscrip- 
tions and  at  least  ten  $50,000  subscriptions.  The 
Fifth  Avenue  Presbyterian  Church,  New  York,  is 

[60] 


OPEN-HANDED  RELIGION 

reported  to  have  given  $1,072,037.00  for  benevolent 
purposes  alone  during  the  year  1916. 

A  generation  ago,  a  hundred  dollar  gift  to  Mis- 
sions was  regarded  liberal.  We  now  hear  of 
$5,000,000  gifts  to  missions.  John  Steward  Kennedy 
left  a  legacy  of  $5,000,000  to  be  equally  divided  be- 
tween the  Baptist  Society  and  the  London  Society. 
Word  reaches  us  at  this  writing,  March,  1922,  that 
Garabed  Melkonian,  an  Armenian,  of  Alexandria, 
Egypt,  has  presented  a  gift  of  $2,000,000  to  the 
American  Board  of  Commissioners  for  Foreign 
Missions. 

The  World's  Almanac  reported  benefactions,  not 
counting  gifts  below  $10,000,  for  the  years : 

1911 $150,000,000 

1912  300,000,000 

1913  302,000,000 

1914 310,000,000 

1915  512,000,000 

That  is  for  this  particular  period  of  five  years, 
$1,574,000,000.  In  other  words,  the  benefactions  for 
this  half  decade  reached  a  sum  greater  than  the 
entire  wealth  of  the  United  States  in  1800.  This 
type  of  benefactions  for  the  past  decade  will  no 
doubt  reach  the  vast  sum  of  $3,000,000,000,  which  is 
equal  to  the  entire  wealth  of  the  United  States  in 
1835.  While  this  sum  is  not  wholly  in  addition  to 
the  enormous  expenditure  for  the  up-keep  of  the 
church   and  its  benevolences,   it  is  very  largely  in 

[61] 


EELIGIOUS  OPTIMISM 

addition  to  these  expenditures;  but  as  the  above  in- 
cludes only  gifts  over  $10,000,  it  by  no  means  repre- 
sent the  full  amount  of  these  general  benefactions. 
The  war  charities  of  this  country  aggregated  $4,000,- 
000,000,  and  this  sum  is  equal  to  more  than  one-half 
the  wealth  of  the  United  States  in  1850. 

We  have  long  talked  of  the  ** millionaire,"  and  we 
are  now  talking  of  the  possible  "billionaire"  in  re- 
gard to  private  fortunes.  But  whoever  thought,  a 
generation  ago,  of  a  possible  "billionaire"  in  giving? 
But  it  is  estimated  that  the  "Prince  of  Givers" — 
Mr.  Andrew  Carnegie — made  donations  aggregating 
almost  $700,000,000  including  his  bequests  and 
residue  of  the  estate.  John  D.  Rockefeller  has  done 
nearly  as  well.  During  the  fiscal  year,  1920-21,  the 
General  Educational  Board,  founded  by  Mr. 
Rockefeller,  appropriated  $18,210,000  for  Colleges 
and  Universities,  $12,029,000  for  medical  schools,  and 
$646,000  for  negro  schools.  Since  it  was  founded, 
this  single  board  has  appropriated  $100,000,000. 

The  wealth  of  the  United  States  is  now  estimated 
at  from  $350,000,000,000  to  $400,000,000,000.'  At 
least  $150,000,000,000  of  that  amount  is  in  posses- 
sion of  church  people,  and  never  was  there  a  time 
when  wealth  was  so  freely  consecrated  for  benevo- 
lent purposes  as  it  is  today.  Under  the  fine  spirit 
of  our  good  new  time  religion,  may  we  not  reasonably 
hope  that  the  time  is  near,  when,  like  the  Wise  Men 
of  old,  we  will  bring  our  wealth  to  the  Master's  feet, 


1  See  Chapter  —  What  of  the  Future. 


OPEN-HANDED  RELIGION 

and  devoutly  ask  that  He  may  bless  it  and  use  it  for 
the  redemption  of  men. 

In  regard  to  a  more  generous  use  of  wealth  for  the 
advancement  of  Christianity,  it  is  worthy  of  note 
that  virtually  all  denominations  are  stressing 
''Christian  stewardship."  This  new  note  is  finding 
expression  in  religious  literature,  in  the  pulpit  and  in 
Sunday  School  instruction.  It  emphasizes  the  teach- 
ing that  we  are  but  stewards  of  the  wealth  under  our 
control,  that  this  wealth  is  a  sacred  trust,  and  we  are 
held  responsible  before  God  for  its  use  or  abuse. 
This  new  emphasis  is  already  bearing  fruit  in  in- 
creased pastors'  salaries,  enlarged  budgets  for  local 
work,  and  in  larger  incomes  for  all  General  Church 
Boards. 

In  a  conference  of  the  Denominational  Secretaries 
of  Pension  and  Relief  Funds  for  retired  Ministers, 
which  closed  June  1,  1922,  the  report  shows  that  the 
endowments  held  for  the  different  phases  of  the 
work  are  in  excess  of  $65,000,000.  During  the  past 
year,  $6,000,000  was  distributed  to  20,500  benefi- 
ciaries. One-half  of  the  distributed  income  was  from 
endowments ;  the  other  half  came  from  direct  gifts  for 
this  purpose.  This  entire  movement  belongs  to  com- 
paratively recent  years. 

The  Presbyterian  Church  reports  gifts  to  all 
causes  this  year  of  financial  stress — 1922 —  amount- 
ing to  $47,000,000.  Of  this  amount  $32,000,000  was 
for  congregational  expenses,  which  was  $12,000,000 
more  than  was  given  for  this  purpose  three  years 
ago.     In   the    last    three    years,    the    Presbyterian 

[^3] 


RELIGIOUS  OPTIMISM 

Church  has  raised  and  used  for  its  own  work  $25,000,- 
000  more  than  in  preceding  years. 

The  Convention  of  the  Episcopal  Church  which  met 
at  Portland,  September,  1922,  called  for  the  raising 
of  $21,000,000  in  the  next  Triennium. 

The  askings  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 
for  its  Benevolent  Boards  alone  for  1922  is  almost 
$23,000,000 : 

Board  of  Foreign  Missions $10,500,000 

Board   of   Home   Missions   and   Church 

Extension 10,500,000 

Board  of  Education 750,000 

Commission  on  Course  of  Study 40,000 

Board  of  Education  for  Negroes 350,000 

Board  of  Sunday  Schools 300,000 

Board  of  Temperance  150,000 

General  Deaconess  Board 45,000 

American  Bible  Society , . .  150,000 

Board  of  Hospitals  and  Homes 35,000 

Board  of  Conference  Claimants  for  Aged 

and  Supply  Pastors 10,000 

Total   $22,830,000 

In  1921,  this  Church  gave  $23,000,000  for  these 
general  Benevolent  Boards,  and  $63,000,000  for  her 
own  upkeep.  In  other  words,  what  she  gave  to  out- 
side causes  was  37  per  cent  of  the  amount  she  gave 
for  her  own  maintenance. 

In  1910,  all  North  America  was  giving  only  about 

[64] 


OPEN-HANDED  RELIGION 

$20,000,000  for  Missions.  In  1914,  this  Church  had 
a  quota  of  but  $4,000,000  and  paid  fifty-one  per  cent 
of  it.  In  1921,  as  already  stated,  she  actually  gave 
$23,000,000  to  outside  causes.  Immediately  preced- 
ing this  fine  program,  this  Church  also  in  a  single 
quadrennium  had  raised  $35,000,000  for  her  Col- 
leges. 

The  Year  Book  of  the  Churches  for  1921-22  reports 
the  giving  of  the  larger  denominations  as  follows : 

Methodist  Episcopal  Church  $85,934,000 

Roman  Catholic  Church  75,368,294 

Presbyterian   Church  North    47,036,442 

Southern  Baptist  Convention 34,881,032 

The  Protestant  Episcopal  Church 34,873,211 

Methodist  Episcopal  Church  South 33,859,832 

Northern  Baptist  Convention 21,926,143 

Congregational  Churches   21,233,412 

Presbyterian  Church  South 12,124,891 

Disciples  of  Christ 11,165,391 

The  Methodist  Bodies  taken  together  . .  130,730,479 
The  Baptist  Bodies  "  "         ..     60,788,534 

The  Presbyterian  Bodies  "  "         ..     56,381,170 

The  Lutheran  Bodies       "  "         ..     33,770,710 

The  curve  of  giving  in  the  Christian  churches 
has  shot  upward  and,  excepting  a  few  fluctuations, 
it  will  under  the  new  and  better  teachings  of  Chris- 
tian stewardship,  go  still  much  higher.  All  this  be- 
speaks a  better  day  for  Christianity. 


['65] 


A  FOUNTAIN  OF  DEMOCRACY 


"Twenty -five  years  of  sane,  systematic  missionary  instruc- 
tion in  our  Sunday  Schools  will  forever  do  away  with  the 
great  debts  carried  by  our  Missionary  Boards,  multiply  by 
millions  the  money  poured  into  their  treasuries,  and  increase 
ten-fold  the  number  of  missionareis  who  are  carrying  the 
gospel  to  those  who  need  it  in  the  home  land  and  in  the 
foreign  countries." 

Report  of  the  Corresponding  Secretary  of  the 
Board  of  Sunday  Schools  of  the  Methodist  Episco- 
pal Church:    1908-1916. 


CHAPTER  IX 
A  Fountain  of  Democracy 

THE  Sunday  School  is  a  modern  institution.  The 
good  old  time  religion  knew  little  about  it.  To 
be  sure,  its  earliest  beginnings  reach  back  to  1780, 
when  Robert  Raikes  first  opened  his  school  in 
Gloucester,  England.  However  for  many  years  it  was 
but  little  more  than  an  eleemosynary  movement,  de- 
signed to  gather  neglected  children  from  the  street 
and  teach  them  to  read  and  write.  The  Sunday 
School  has  become  our  greatest  religious  force,  outside 
the  pulpit  itself.  This  institution  did  not  really  come 
into  its  own  until  after  the  Civil  War;  that  is,  with 
the  work  and  inspiration  of  the  late  Bishop  Vincent 
and  with  the  inauguration  of  the  International  Lesson 
System,  and  the  development  of  the  graded  system. 

Two  generations  ago  the  church  drew  very  few 
members  from  the  ranks  of  the  Sunday  School.  Now 
it  has  become  the  chief  means  of  recruiting  church 
membership.  It  would  be  difficult  indeed  now  to 
imagine  a  church  of  any  importance  without  the  sing- 
ing, the  cheer,  the  inspiration,  the  joyous,  youthful 
activity  to  be  found  in  the  modern  Sunday  School. 
Only  those  who  have  witnessed  it  and  have  shared  in 
it  can  in  any  measure  appreciate  the  happiness  this 
modern  institution  brings  to  the  children  of  our  age. 

The  Sunday  School  is  a  far  greater  religious  factor 

[67] 


EELIGIOUS  OPTIMISM 

than  many  people  seem  willing  to  concede.  Of  course 
its  work  is  not  perfect.  At  times  it  may  be  even  crude, 
but  it  is  far  reaching  and  leaves  a  definite  impress  on 
the  individual.  Those  who  are  inclined  to  criticise 
the  crudeness  of  the  work  of  this  institution  need  to 
be  reminded  that  a  very  large  per  cent  of  the  teachers 
in  the  modern  Sunday  School  are  taken  from  college, 
high  school  and  public  school  faculties,  individuals 
who  have  been  awarded  the  highest  degrees  of  scholar- 
ship by  our  colleges  and  who  hold  teachers'  certifi- 
cates, and  have  been  selected  by  school  boards  because 
of  their  fitness  in  personality,  training  and  character 
to  teach  in  our  public  and  high  schools. 

The  Sunday  School  has  marvelously  improved  in 
the  quality  of  its  literature,  music,  helps,  and  in  the 
personnel  of  the  teaching  force  in  the  past  two  de- 
cades. It  is  very  significant  that  Dr.  W.  0.  Thompson 
was  re-elected  president  of  the  International  Sunday 
School  Convention  which  recently  met  at  Kansas  City, 
and  Professor  Hugh  S.  McGill  was  elected  secretary 
of  the  International  Council  of  Religious  Education, 
as  both  these  men  are  educators  of  national  reputa- 
tion. 

The  average  time  spent  by  the  individual  in  the 
Sunday  School  is  about  eight  years  —  perhaps  a 
little  less.  There  are  now  24,000,000  in  the  Sunday 
Schools  of  America.  This  number  will  be  repeated 
four  and  three-fourths  times  in  thirty-five  years.  In 
a  single  generation,  therefore,  some  114,000,000  chil- 
dren will  come  under  its  influence  for  a  longer  or 
shorter  time.     It  will  be  noted  that  this  is  even 

[68] 


A  FOUNTAIN  OF  DEMOCRACY 

greater  than  the  church  constituency  as  a  foregoing 
statement  indicated.  The  church  constituency  —  is 
the  Sunday  School  constituency  of  an  earlier  age.  A 
sudden  drop  in  the  Sunday  School  of  a  particular 
church  will  appear,  other  things  being  equal,  in  almost 
the  same  ratio  in  the  church  membership  and  attend- 
ance of  that  church  in  about  eight  years.  Just  so, 
a  sudden  increase  in  the  Sunday  School  of  a  church 
will  show  a  like  effect  in  the  church  in  about  eight 
years. 

Of  course  this  vast  host  now  passing  through  the 
Sunday  School  are  not  thoroughly  instructed  in  re- 
ligious matters.  An  hour  once  a  week  for  an  eight 
year  course  can  not  mean  thoroughness.  It  is  equiva- 
lent to  an  hour  a  day  running  through  about  five 
semesters  of  a  school  course.  But  they  are  taught  the 
fundamentals  of  morality  and  religion,  the  recogni- 
tion of  God,  without  which,  Washington  declared,  it 
is  impossible  to  govern  a  nation.  They  are  taught  a 
reverence  for  the  Bible  and  often  form  a  love  for 
Bible  study  that  remains  with  them  throughout  life. 
They  are  taught  personal  purity  and  the  fundamental 
principles  of  morality  and  good  citizenship;  —  that 
''Righteousness  exalteth  a  nation  but  sin  is  a  reproach 
to  any  people."  They  are  taught  many  funda- 
mental social  principles  —  that  we  are  our  broth- 
er's keeper.  They  are  taught  the  great  truths 
of  the  Universal  Fatherhood  of  God  and  the  common 
brotherhood  of  man.  They  are  introduced  to  the 
missionary  spirit,  given  much  information  about  for- 
eign peoples  and  interested  in  their  welfare  and  des- 

[69] 


RELIGIOUS  OPTIMISM 

tiny.  It  is  at  this  point  that  the  public  schools  and 
even  our  colleges  have,  up  to  date,  been  singularly- 
lacking.  They  have  failed  to  create  a  proper  appre- 
ciation of  other  peoples,  to  build  up  a  wholesome 
international  mindedness  and  to  impart  the  world 
outlook. 

We  have  here  a  great  fountain  of  democracy.  Next 
to  the  public  school,  the  Sunday  School  is  our  most 
democratic  institution  and  it  has  done  its  full  part 
toward  creating  a  passion  for  democracy  that  is  now 
finding  an  expression  in  all  the  Christian  nations  of 
the  world.  This  feature  of  the  Sunday  School,  we 
think,  has  been  entirely  overlooked  by  the  critics  of 
the  church.  When  the  history  of  democracy  is  finally 
written,  this  institution,  no  doubt,  will  be  given  a 
large  measure  of  credit.  For  it  has  impressed  upon 
millions  of  children  in  Europe  and  America  the  prin- 
ciples of  brotherhood  at  an  age  when  these  children 
were  most  easily  guided,  and  Christian  brotherhood 
is  the  highest  type  of  democracy. 

Moreover,  this  institution  leads  to  definite  religious 
results,  as  may  be  seen  from  the  fact  that  though  the 
increase  in  church  membership  has  been  during  the 
past  generation  nothing  less  than  phenomenal,  the 
Sunday  School  has  furnished  about  eighty  per  cent 
of  these  members  and  about  nienty-six  per  cent  of 
the  ministers  of  our  protestant  churches,  or  at  least, 
these  members  and  ministers  have  come  up  through 
the  Sunday  School. 

In  the  above  we  have  had  in  mind  the  Sunday 
Schools  of  America.    But  look  again.    In  the  World 

[70] 


A  FOUNTAIN  OF  DEMOCRACY 

today  there  are  about  35,000,000  Sunday  School  mem- 
bers. That  means  within  a  generation  some  164,000,- 
000  will  come  under  its  molding  influence.  In  the 
tramp,  tramp,  tramp  of  the  little  feet  of  these  millions 
of  children  carrying  their  Bibles  —  the  fountain  of 
life  and  the  sword  of  the  Spirit  —  may  be  heard  the 
tread  of  the  mightiest  moral  and  religious  force  his- 
tory has  known ;  for,  from  these  ranks  will  come  our 
school  teachers,  our  professional  men,  our  law  makers, 
our  rulers,  and  our  ministers  for  our  future  pulpits, 
in  short,  our  leaders  in  every  walk  of  life.  Their  social 
ideals,  outlook  upon  the  world,  and  moral  and  re- 
ligious standards  and  conduct  will  have  been  largely 
determined  by  this  institution. 

The  advance  in  the  offerings  of  the  Sunday  School 
to  the  benevolent  enterprises  of  the  church  is  quite 
as  impressive  as  the  numerical  and  evangelistic  re- 
sults. The  missionary  offerings  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Sunday  School  alone  in  1907  were  $524,- 
852 ;  in  1915,  $646,988.  For  Methodists  it  is  conven- 
ient to  study  quadrenniums.  1904-1907  the  Sunday 
School  missionary  offerings  amounted  to  $2,157,868. 
1908-1911  to  $2,169,464;  1912-1915  to  $2,524,424. 
Now  the  Sunday  Schools  of  the  Methodist  Church 
have  assumed  $2,100,000  per  year  for  a  period  of  five 
years  and  are  meeting  it. 

The  Sunday  School  has  created  a  literature  all  its 
own.  The  Sunday  School  Times,  the  Sunday  School 
Journal,  papers  for  the  young  people,  Bible  Study 
helps,  books  of  many  descriptions,  —  this  is  all  modern 
literature,   the   quality   and  volume   of   which   few 

[71] 


EELIGIOUS  OPTIMISM 

people,  except  those  who  have  given  the  matter  special 
attention,  have  little  conception.  The  Methodist 
Book  Concern  alone  is  now  distributing  more  than 
a  billion  pages  of  Sunday  School  literature  every  year 
and  has  been  known  to  bind,  in  a  single  quadrennium, 
1,800,000  copies  of  religious  books  and  pamphlets. 
The  total  number  of  copies  of  uniform  publications 
for  the  quadrennium  1916-1919  was  275,753,196,  the 
number  of  pages  was  3,920,995,075.  The  circulation 
of  graded  material  for  the  same  quadrennium  was  12,- 
995,136  additional. 

Take  one  denomination  as  an  example  of  the  rapid 
growth  of  this  institution  —  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church.  The  storj^  of  the  growth  of  Sunday  Schools 
of  this  denomination  and  the  converts  that  have  come 
from  its  ranks  run  into  figures  that  almost  stagger 
belief.  Its  Board  of  Sunday  Schools  was  organized 
in  1908.  At  that  time,  the  Sunday  School  member- 
ship was  3,347,000.  By  1916,  the  membership  had 
reached  4,598,000  — a  gain  of  1,252,000,  —  the  most 
remarkable  advance  in  the  history  of  the  Sunday 
School  movement.  Take  a  period  of  four  years,  end- 
ing 1916;  the  figures  are  overwhelming.  For  this 
period  the  average  increase  in  membership  was  150,- 
000  and  the  total  number  of  conversions  for  the  four 
years  was  785,000.  In  the  eight  years  preceding  1916, 
there  was  reported  1,400,000  conversions.  Dr.  Blake, 
then  the  Secretary  of  the  Board,  and  now  Bishop, 
made  the  following  observation  upon  its  showing: 
''Methodism  has  witnessed  many  remarkable  evange- 
listic achievements,  but  never  one  of  such  immense 

[72] 


A  FOUNTAIN  OF  DEMOCRACY 

magnitude  as  this  one.  It  is  the  greatest  in  our  his- 
tory. There  has  never  been  anything  like  it  since  the 
days  of  Wesley.  The  fact  stands  out  with  striking 
force  that  the  Sunday  School  is  the  church's  greatest 
evangelistic  field  and  factor.  —  The  man  who  remains 
insensible  to  the  evangelistic  opportunity  of  the 
Sunday  School  has  clearly  outlived  his  evangelistic 
usefulness.  God  fulfills  Himself  in  many  ways.  He 
opens  many  doors  of  opportunity  for  His  people  to 
promote  the  Kingdom.  The  open  door  most  conspic- 
uous and  most  commanding  in  our  day  is  that  of  the 
Sunday  School  with  its  offer  of  young  and  inspiring 
hearts,  sensitive  and  susceptible  to  the  voice  of  God 
and  the  play  of  the  Spirit." 

With  1916  came  the  disturbing  factor  of  the  Great 
World  War  and  literally  millions  of  our  young  people 
went  to  the  battle  fields,  the  training  camps,  and  to 
serve  in  our  hospitals.    A  regular  rate  of  increase  in 
our  Sunday  Schools,  of  course,  was  not  possible.    But 
with  the  return  of  normal  conditions,  the  same  mar- 
velous growth  in  Sunday  School  membership  again 
becomes  noticeable.    The  gain  in  the  Methodist  Sun- 
day Schools  for  1921  is  the  largest  of  any  single  year, 
with  the  exception  of  1909  and  1915.    The  net  gains 
for  1921  are  as  follows : 
446  in  schools 
7,775  in  officers  and  teachers 
9,134  in  Home  Department 
22,891  in  Cradle  Roll 

283,262  in  total  enrollment 

232,277  in  average  attendance 

[73] 


KELIGIOUS  OPTIMISM 

140,355  in  pupils  belonging  to  the  cliurcli 
2,289  in  accessions  to  the  church  from  the  Sun- 
day School. 

This  table  shows  a  gain  in  attendance  alone  of 
nearly  a  quarter  of  a  million  in  a  single  year. 

In  1921,  924  adult  Bible  classes  were  organized,  with 
a  total  membership  of  29,279. 

The  Sunday  School  subscribed  $10,000,000  to  the 
Centenary  Fund  to  be  paid  in  five  annual  install- 
ments. The  payments  from  the  Sunday  School 
reached  ninety-four  per  cent  of  the  pledges  for  1921, 
while  the  church  paid  but  seventy  per  cent  of  its 
pledges. 

If  modern  Christianity  had  nothing  to  show  but 
its  Sunday  School  work  and  achievements  for  the  first 
twenty  years  of  the  twentieth  century,  this  still  could 
be  regarded  as  the  Golden  Age  of  Christendom.  But 
in  Sunday  School  work  we  are  not  looking  toward  the 
West.  We  are  looking  toward  the  East.  Its  sun  is 
just  rising.  Its  noon-day  is  in  the  future.  The 
Golden  Age  of  the  Sunday  School  as  to  numbers, 
efficiency  in  religious  instruction,  and  as  a  feeder  for 
the  future  church,  is  yet  to  come.  A  fine  cure  for 
religious  pessimism  is  a  careful  study  of  this  in- 
stitution in  its  present  condition  and  in  the  promise 
of  its  future  possibilities. 


[74] 


A  NEW  SOURCE  OF  RELIGION 


"Modem  collegiate  life  is  today  a  wonderful  microcosm : — 
it  represents  the  endeavor  of  generations  of  zealous,  earnest 
educators  to  make  this  period  of  youth  increasingly  profit- 
able. The  number  and  variety  of  studies  have  been  in- 
creased many  fold,  the  proportion  of  teachers  to  students 
has  been  increased,  improved  methods  of  instruction  have 
been  brought  into  play  and  the  equipment  of  laboratories  is 
lavishly  generous.  Never  before  has  there  been  such  earnest 
discussion  as  to  educational  methods  and  values;  the 
teacher's  art  has  become  a  science,  and  he  a  great  power  in 
the  land." 

President    T.    M.    Drown,    Quoted    from    "The 
American  College  In  American  Life."  —  Thwing. 


CHAPTER  X 

A  New  Source  of  Religion 

A  WELL  known  Bisbop  in  this  country  declared 
that  educated  mind  rules  the  world,  and  if 
Christianity  ever  gains  control,  she  must  establish 
and  maintain  colleges  where  educated  minds  are 
trained.  Another  noted  Bishop  and  educator  has  ex- 
horted us  to  '^remember  that  a  college  education 
increases  a  young  man's  possibilities  for  reaching 
eminence,  wealth,  usefulness,  and  influence  from  three 
hundred  and  fifty  to  two  thousand  fold."  Still 
another:  ''that  he  would  be  ready  to  match  one  well 
trained,  consecrated  college  man  against  a  thousand 
evil  doers." 

If  these  statements  are  true,  or  in  the  measure  they 
may  be  true,  it  is  interesting  to  study  not  only  the 
development  of  the  college,  but  more  especially  the 
growth  of  church  membership  and  the  Christian  spirit 
in  our  Colleges,  particularly  in  the  tax-supported 
colleges. 

It  may  be  worth  while  to  remember  that  a  college 
education  is  far  more  extensive  than  it  was  a  genera- 
tion or  two  ago.  We  need  not  go  back  far  to  find  the 
colleges  giving  courses  covering  but  little  more  ground 
than  that  of  the  modern  high  school.  Education 
means  more  today  than  it  did  in  the  early  part,  or 
even  the  middle  of  the  past  century. 

[77] 


RELIGIOUS  OPTIMISM 

Again,  larger  numbers  by  far,  even  as  compared 
with  our  increase  in  population,  are  now  receiving  a 
college  training.  Taking  our  history  as  a  whole,  it 
has  been  conservatively  estimated  that  only  one  out 
of  seven  hundred  and  fifty,  —  some  place  the  ratio  at 
one  out  of  a  thousand  —  of  those  who  have  reached 
mature  age  has  enjoyed  the  advantage  of  a  college 
training.  In  1890,  this  ratio  had  risen  to  about  one 
in  every  three  hundred.  It  is  perhaps  now  about  one 
out  of  every  hundred.  Not  only  has  illiteracy  prac- 
tically disappeared,  except  among  our  newly  arrived 
immigrants  and  colored  population,  but  this  is  an 
age  when  young  people  are  flocking  to  our  high 
schools  and  colleges  in  every  increasing  numbers. 

Of  the  American  soldiers  who  fought  the  Revo- 
lutionary War  about  one  in  eight  could  read.  Several 
regiments  in  the  late  war  with  Spain  did  not  contain 
a  soldier  who  could  not  read.  The  intelligence  tests 
for  the  World  War  revealed  conditions  somewhat  dis- 
appointing; but  we  must  distinguish  between  the 
capacity  for  intelligence  and  literacy.  Schools  are 
not  responsible  for  individual  intellectual  capacity. 
This,  according  to  these  tests  is  low  among  great 
masses  of  our  people,  but  literacy  is  wide  spread. 

The  State  University,  or  tax  supported  University 
is  a  modern  institution,  virtually  a  product  of  the 
last  seventy-five  years.  Note  the  rapid  growth  in  these 
institutions,  doubling  every  decade:^ 


1  The  increase  in  high  school  attendance  is  even  more  marked. 
From  1890  to  1920  this  increase  was  over  900  per  cent.  This  repre- 
sents a  rate  of  increase  of  almost  fourteen  times  that  of  the  growth 
in  population, 

[78] 


A  NEW  SOURCE  OF  RELIGION 

In  1870,  there  were  6,000  students  in  these  institu- 
tions ; 

in  1880 12,000 

in  1890    22,000 

in  1900    45,000 

in  1910 101,000 

in  1920 200,000 

in  1922    240,000 

These  students  have  not  been  attracted  from  the 
church  supported  and  private  colleges  and  univer- 
sities. While  the  increase  in  these  schools  has  not 
been  so  phenomenal,  it  has  been  regular  and  at  times 
remarkable.  The  enrollment  of  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Colleges  for  the  same  period  ran  as  follows : 

in  1870 7,000 

1880 10,000 

1890 20,000 

1900 30,000 

1910 37,000 

1920 40,000 

Private  institutions 

in  1890 60,000 

1900 75,000 

1910 120,000 

1920 160,000 

In  1860,  there  was  but  a  single  college  in  the 
United  States  with  an  enrollment  of  over  five  hun- 
dred. In  1915,  there  were  a  hundred  colleges  with 
an  enrollment  above  one  thousand,  twelve  with  an 
enrollment  above  five  thousand,  and  one  at  least  with 
an  enrollment  of  over  fourteen  thousand.    But  look 

[79] 


KELIGIOUS  OPTIMISM 

again.  In  1921  there  were  nine  colleges  with  over  ten 
thousand  students  each,  five  with  over  twelve  thou- 
sand and  one  with  25,734,  and  with  a  faculty  of  one 
thousand  five  hundred  and  six.  Three  colleges  in 
New  York  City  are  reported  to  have  a  combined  en- 
rollment of  fifty  thousand  students/ 

However,  it  is  not  the  increase  in  college  students 
to  which  we  wish  to  direct  especial  attention,  but  the 
increase  of  the  Christian  spirit,  and  the  ever  increas- 
ing ratio  of  church  members  among  these  students. 
Here  is  a  new  source  of  religious  influence  and  it 
promises  in  the  near  future  to  greatly  accelerate  re- 
ligious progress. 

In  the  early  history  of  our  country,  the  religious 
condition  in  our  colleges  was  deplorable.  They 
counted  practically  nothing  in  religious  influence.  At 
Princeton,  in  1782,  but  two  students  were  reported 
who  confessed  Christianity.^  At  Hampden  Sidney 
College,  1787,  of  a  student  body  of  eighty,  not  one 
was  known  to  be  in  any  way  serious  upon  the  subject 
of  religion.  The  situation  at  Dartmouth  was  no 
better.  Of  Yale,  it  was  said  that  French  infidelity 
enthroned  intemperance,  dueling  and  suicide,  and  a 
type  of  immorality  that  succeeded  in  wiping  out  all 
sacredness  of  the  ties  between  men  and  women.  In 
1792  John  H.  Church  is  said  to  have  been  the  only 
professor  of  religion  in  the  four  classes  of  Harvard. 
An  examination  of  all  the  colleges  of  America  at  that 
period  will  reveal  a  similar  state  of  affairs. 


1  The  World  Almanac. 

2  Edwin  N.  Hardy — "The  Church  and  Educated  Men,"  p.  54, 


[80] 


A  NEW  SOURCE  OF  RELIGION 

Note  the  following  observation  of  the  condition  of 
the  colleges  of  this  early  day:  ''For  the  years  from 
1770  to  1820  the  religious  life  in  the  American  colleges 
sank  so  low  that  it  might  be  called  the  'Dark  Age  of 
Religion.'  "^  "Never  was  a  period  in  history  of  the 
higher  education  when  the  principles  and  vices,  which 
are  frequently  denominated  'Fren'ih'  had  so  large  an 
influence  among  American  students  as  the  opening  of 
the  century.  The  records  show  that  the  students  of 
that  time  were  defiant  of  authority,  in  conduct  im- 
moral, and  in  religion  skeptical."'^  "What  was 
usually  called  infidelity  was  fashionable  and  preva- 
lent in  almost  every  college.  It  was  a  common  remark 
that  certain  students  of  Yale  at  this  time  (about 
1810)  were  calling  themselves  by  the  names  of  con- 
spicuous free-thinkers  of  France.  Writing  of  Williams 
College,  one  says:  'French  liberty  and  French  philo- 
sophy poured  in  upon  us  like  a  flood;  and  seemed  to 
sweep  everything  serious  before  it Coarse  dra- 
matic exhibitions,  terrific  outbursts  of  rowdyism, 
bombastic  display  of  contempt  of  the  Christian  re- 
ligion, seem  to  have  been  the  rule.  A  wave  of 
immorality  and  irreligion  had  for  a  time  submerged 
all  the  colleges.'  '" 

The  period  of  the  next  fifty  years  shows  improve- 
ment, but  the  religious  life  of  colleges  still  remains 
extremely  low.  An  examination  of  a  dozen  of  the 
leading  American  colleges  of  1825  will  show  about 
twenty    per    cent    of    the    student    body    confessing 


1  Edwin  N.   Hardy — "The    Church   and  Educated  Men."    p.    132. 

2  Charles  F.  Thwing — "American  College  in  American  Life."  p.  9. 

3  Charles  F.  Thwing — "American  College  in  American  Life."  p.  10. 

[8i] 


RELIGIOUS  OPTIMISM 

Christians.  An  examination  of  a  dozen  colleges  in 
1850  will  show  thirty-three  per  cent  confessing  Chris- 
tians. In  1860  about  forty-seven  per  cent  would  be 
found  who  were  open  in  their  confession  of  the 
Christian  religion. 

But  from  this  time  on  the  condition  rapidly 
changes.  In  1900,  an  examination  of  thirty-two 
colleges  showed  sixty-five  per  cent  of  the  men  in  the 
senior  class  Christians.  Note  the  following  table  for 
1901: 
Number  of  Colleges  Reported:   Per  cent  Christians: 

Undenominational      13 36 

Congregational  14 77 

Presbyterian  3 90 

Methodist  7 74 

State  Universities        5 45 

The  average  in  these  forty-two  colleges  is  seventy- 
four  percent,  but  this  percentage  has  been  gradually 
rising  for  the  past  twenty  years.  Well  can  it  be 
claimed  that  this  is  the  ''Golden  Age"  in  the  Chris- 
tian life  of  Colleges. 

From  reported  statistics  as  late  as  the  year  1921,  it 
appears  that  about  75  per  cent  of  the  students  of 
State  institutions,  a  somewhat  higher  per  cent  at 
private  institutions,  and  a  still  higher  per  cent  in 
denominational  colleges  are  affiliated  with  Christian 
churches.    The  average  is  about  82  per  cent. 

Moreover,  Christianity  must  be  given  a  large  meas- 
ure of  credit  for  creating  the  present  American  pas- 
sion for  education.  The  whole  post-Reformation 
period  has  been  one  of  mental  quickening  and  illum- 

[82] 


A  NEW  SOURCE  OF  RELIGION 

ination.  The  Master  Teacher,  Jesus,  assured  us  that  it 
was  the  office  of  his  spirit  to  guide  us  into  all  truth. 
The  Wesleyan  movement  was  not  only  a  revival  of  re- 
ligion, it  quickened  a  greater  love  for  knowledge.  Out 
•of  it  came  the  Sunday  School,  and  the  Sunday  School 
according  to  the  English  historian  Green,  was  the  fore- 
runner of  popular  education.  Many  of  our  great  uni- 
versities are  the  direct  outgrowth  of  religious  awaken- 
ings ;  every  local  revival  sends  students  to  -our  colleges. 
A  true  revival  of  religion  quickens  the  entire  person- 
ality, and  often  one  of  the  most  pronounced  evidences 
of  this  awakening  is  a  new  desire  to  know  and  a 
decision  to  acquire  an  education.  It  is  from  the 
Christian  Church  —  from  Christian  homes  that  come 
the  vast  numbers  of  students  to  our  colleges 
and  universities.  Our  non-churched  communities 
and  non-churched  portions  of  our  population  send 
comparatively  few  young  people  to  college.  The 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church  alone  in  1922  sent  over 
100,000  students  from  its  constituency  to  college. 
From  the  church  homes  of  eight  denominations,  120,- 
000  went  this  year  to  our  State  Universities  alone  — 
fully  one-half  of  the  entire  enrollment.  These  eight 
denominations  represent  one-sixth  of  our  population. 
So,  besides  the  vast  number  of  students  in  their  own 
denominational  schools,  they  furnish  one-half  of  the 
enrollment  of  our  State  Colleges. 

In  the  United  States,  there  are  now  just  about  one 
hundred  publicly  supported  state  and  municipal 
colleges.  They  enroll  'Over  a  quarter  of  a  million  stu- 
dents.   It  has  been  our  national  policy  that  state  and 

[83] 


EELIGIOUS  OPTIMISM 

church  should  be  separate.  But  what  was  wisely 
intended  as  a  safe^ard  has  often  been  interpreted 
to  mean  that  religious  instruction  should  not  be  given 
in  these  institutions.  For  the  interests  of  religion, 
this  attitude  for  a  time  threatened  to  lead  to  deplor- 
able results.  But  the  church  holding  the  firm  convic- 
tion that  education  can  not  be  complete  without 
religion  has  hastened  to  repair  this  defect.  It  is 
founding  in  connection  with  these  universities,  chairs 
for  Biblical  and  religious  instruction. 

Student  pastors  and  special  teachers  are  being 
supported  by  a  single  denomination  or  by  the  co- 
operation of  a  number  of  denominations.  Often  regu- 
lar college  credits  are  awarded  for  this  work.  These 
institutions  are  coming  more  fully  to  recognize  their 
obligation  to  furnish  ethical  and  religious  instruction, 
as  well  as  the  physical  and  intellectual  disciplines. 
Hence  this  work  is  growing  in  favor  with  educators, 
and  is  being  heartily  encouraged  by  Christian  senti- 
ment in  general.  But  this  may  be  but  a  transitional 
movement  opening  up  the  way  by  which  this  service 
may  be  rendered  more  directly  by  the  college  authori- 
ties. Thus  the  prediction  of  H.  G.  Wells  of  the  ap- 
proach of  a  closer  alliance  between  religion  and 
education  may  be  fulfilled.  We  are  at  least  well  on  the 
way  to  solve  this  glaring  defect  in  our  tax-supported 
institutions  of  the  alm-ost  complete  lack  of  direct 
religious  instruction. 

Take  the  work  of  a  single  denomination  —  that  of 
the  Presbyterian  as  an  example  —  there  are  forty-two 

[84] 


A  NEW  SOURCE  OF  RELIGION 

university  centers  to  which  this  church  is  making 
appropriations. 

The  following  statistics  are  for  a  university  where 
there  has  been  a  Presbyterian  university  pastor  for 
six  years:  Of  the  first  12,706  graduates  of  the  uni- 
versity, only  47  entered  the  ministry  of  all  denomina- 
tions. Since  the  Presbyterian  university  pastorate 
was  established,  25  Presbyterian  students  have  be- 
come ministers,  32  missionaries,  and  four  others  are 
under  appointment.  Except  during  war  times,  there 
have  been  about  twelve  Presb3i;erian  candidates  for 
the  ministry  each  year  in  the  university,  and  the 
Presbyterian  Student  Volunteers  have  averaged  about 
forty. 

The  following  table  is  compiled  from  the  programs 
of  the  1919,  1920  and  1921  conferences  for  outgoing 
missionaries,  printed  by  the  Board  of  Foreign  Mis- 
sions : 

1919  1920   1921 

* '  Total   outgoing  missionaries    116    121      99 

Number  who  are  graduates  of  State 

institutions  28      19      21 

Additional  number  who  took  gradu- 
ate work  in  State  institutions  . .       7        7        8 

"Within  a  year  graduates  of  one  Agricultural  Col- 
lege  have  sailed  as  missionaries  for  India,  Burma, 
and  Syria,  and  another  has  entered  a  Theological 
Seminary.  ^ ' 

In  the  institutions  where  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  is  maintaining  definite  work,  sixty-seven 
Methodist  students  are  considering  the  ministry  and 
a  hundred  and  sixty-two  men  and  women  are  con- 

[8s] 


RELIGIOUS  OPTIMISM 

templating  foreign  service.  For  many  years,  these 
publicly  supported  institutions  have  furnished  vir- 
tually no  leaders  for  our  churches.  Through  the  in- 
fluence of  the  religious  programs  the  several  denom- 
inations are  setting  up  in  these  institutions,  they 
promise  from  their  ever  increasing  student  bodies  to 
furnish  their  full  quota  of  ministers  and  Christian 
workers  and  thus  fully  meet  what  has  been  a  dimin- 
ishing ministerial  supply. 

It  is  a  hopeful  sign  that  this  need  is  so  clearly 
recognized  and  so  frankly  acknowledged,  and  that 
careful  study  is  being  given  to  the  problem  by  leaders 
in  both  the  church  and  educational  circles. 

Education  of  the  future  promises  to  contain  more 
of  the  moral  and  religious  emphasis,  and  even  our 
tax  supported  colleges  promise  to  become  fountains 
of  religious  inspiration  and  progress.  There  are  no 
signs  of  a  break  between  Christianity  and  the  edu- 
cated classes  —  but  instead  there  is  every  indication 
that  trained  leaders  from  our  colleges  in  ever  increas- 
ing numbers  will  give  themselves  to  the  task  of 
advancing  the  Master's  kingdom. 

If  the  modern  church  did  no  more  than  to  inspire 
these  hundreds  of  thousands  of  young  people  of  clean 
life,  lofty  ideals  and  noble  aspirations  to  go  to  col- 
lege, there  to  receive  a  training  to  fit  them  for  leader- 
ship in  the  many  branches  of  our  modern  life,  it 
would  be  exerting  a  tremendous  influence  on  the 
destiny  of  the  human  race. 

Shortly  before  his  death,  Dwight  L.  Moody  said: 
"From  a  religious  point  of  view,  I  look  upon  the 
college  as  the  most  hopeful  field  in  the  world.'*    And 

[86] 


A  NEW  SOURCE  OF  RELIGION 

John  R.  Mott  has  pronounced:  *'The  coUeges  and 
universities  are  the  most  religious  communities  in 
the  country."  Nicholas  Murray  Butler:  ** Parents 
generally  are  coming  to  see  that  when  a  boy  leaves 
home,  as  he  must,  there  is  on  the  whole  no  place  where 
he  is  so  safe  as  in  college,  and  that  if  a  thousand 
young  men  be  selected  at  random  from  the  college, 
and  compared  with  a  thousand  young  men  of  corres- 
ponding ages,  selected  at  random  from  those  not  in 
college,  the  conditions  of  the  college  man,  the  two 
groups  being  taken  as  wholes,  will  be  found  immensely 
more  favorable  to  the  best  results  than  those  of  the 
other  class." 

It  begins  to  appear  that  Christ  is  destined  to  have 
the  trained  intellect  of  America,  at  least,  and  this 
can  well  nigh  rule  the  world.  No  one  would  care  to 
contend  that  the  religious  conditions  in  our  colleges 
today  are  ideal,  but  it  has  certainly  improved  over 
conditions  of  even  twenty  years  ago,  and  very  greatly 
improved  over  conditions  that  prevailed  early  in  the 
nineteenth  century,  or  just  before  the  Civil  War.  This 
change  of  religious  attitude  and  influence  has  been 
particularly  noticeable  in  our  tax  supported  insti- 
tutions during  the  past  dozen  years. 


[87] 


STUPENDOUS  REVIVALS 


"It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  the  evangelical  revival 
taught  the  world's  democracy  how  most  effectively  to  become 
audible.  This  side  of  the  movement  has  a  long  and  inter- 
esting history  going  back  to  Wickliffe  and  his  Lollard  monks, 
and  from  them  to  their  teachers  the  Waldesion  lay  preachers. 
But  the  full  flower  of  the  movement  only  bloomed  in  the 
fullness  of  time  when  English  democracy  was  moved  and 
molded  by  Wesley  and  Whitfield  by  Ingham  and  John 
Nelson." 

Thomas  Cuming  Hall,  D.  D.,  Professor  of  Chris- 
tian Ethics  in  Union  Theological  Seminary. 
From  his  article  in  "Christ  and  Civilization." 


CHAPTER  XI 

Stupendous  Revivals 

WE  WILL  not  here  make  a  plea  for  the  old  time 
revival,  for  the  spectacular  in  religious  work, 
but  will  point  out  that  our  "new  time"  religion  has 
witnessed  the  stupendous,  as  well  as  the  spectacular 
in  revival  work;  and  will  also  make  some  observa- 
tions on  modern  evangelism.  However,  every  stu- 
dent of  religion  must  recognize  the  value  of  the  old 
time  "special  meeting."  They  served  their  age  and 
served  it  well,  and  they  paved  the  way  for  the  better 
methods  and  larger  results  of  our  age. 

But  even  the  emotional  and  spectacular  revival  has 
not  passed.  To  be  sure  they  are  not  so  general  as  a 
generation  ago.  This  generation,  in  many  respects, 
is  the  golden  age  of  such  revivals.  We  marvel  at  the 
power  of  Jonathan  Edwards,  Timothy  Dwight, 
Whitfield,  Finney,  Dwight  L.  Moody,  and  other 
great  outstanding  religious  leaders;  and  while  con- 
scious of  their  limitations,  permit  ourselves  to  think 
that  they  are  not  now  having,  and  perhaps  have  not 
had  for  the  past  two  decades,  any  successors.  But  in 
fact  their  works  are  not  only  duplicated,  but  far 
surpassed  by  more  modern  evangelists.  The  Welsh 
revival  under  Evan  Roberts  belongs  to  this  age,  and 
there  have  been  few  revivals  in  history  more  sweep- 
ing or  more  deeply  impressive.    Bederwolf,  Audens- 

[89] 


KELIGIOUS  OPTIMISM 

child,  French  Oliver  and  scores  of  others  have  won 
real  victories  as  revivalists  during  the  past  twenty 
years.  The  late  Wilbur  Chapman  spoke  to  as  many 
people  and  had  as  many  converts  as  Moody.  Gypsy 
Smith's  work  has  been  felt  in  two  continents.  The 
late  B.  Fay  Mills  is  estimated  to  have  won  500,000 
souls,  —  the  number  of  Christian  adherents  at  the 
end  of  the  first  century  was  but  500,000 !  In  ''Acts" 
we  learn  that  after  Peter's  great  sermon  following 
Pentecost,  that  some  3,000  believed. 

The  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  has  done 
some  excellent  evangelistic  work.  In  1917  this 
Association  at  Los  Angeles  penetrated  every  corner 
of  that  city  with  the  evangelistic  message.  That 
year  over  50,000  persons  were  reached  with  the  mes- 
sage in  all  sorts  of  places,  in  the  city  and  county  jails, 
in  the  city  chain  gang,  in  manufacturing  and  rail- 
road plants,  in  open  air  meetings  and  elsewhere. 

Recent  reports  from  the  Presbyterian  Church  state 
that  seventeen  Presbyteries  alone,  with  seven  hun- 
dred and  fifty  seven  churches,  will  employ  twenty- 
four  full  time  evangelists  and  three  hundred  visiting 
ministers  in  special  efforts  at  soul-winning.  These 
same  reports  show  that  during  1921,  2,000  persons 
united  with  the  Presbyterian  Church  each  week  on 
confession  of  faith,  or  285  each  day  of  the  year. 

At  this  writing  comes  this  account  of  a  revival  in 
Scotland:  ''A  great  revival  is  in  progress  in  Scot- 
land which  is  stirring  the  country  from  one  end  to 
the  other,  more  than  20,000  conversions  having  been 
reported  to  date  among  various  denominations.    The 

[9o] 


STUPENDOUS  REVIVALS 

leader  of  the  movement  is  Gock  Trup,  a  young  man  of 
splendid  physique  who  was  converted  only  five  years 
ago.  This  youth  has  a  wonderful  power  in  quoting 
Scripture  and  does  it  with  purpose.  His  own  posi- 
tion in  the  revival  which  has  already  registered  more 
conversions  than  the  total  of  the  great  ''Welsh 
Revival"  of  1904  is  as  much  a  surprise  to  himself  as 
to  any  other  person." 

But  note  the  work  of  the  modern  miracle  of  this 
type  of  emotional  evangelism  and  mass  appeal,  — 
Billy  Sunday.  Our  purpose  is  neither  to  condemn  nor 
advocate  his  methods.  We  are  fully  aware  of  the 
fleeting  character  of  much  of  the  seeming  results. 
But  this  is  partly  true  also  of  the  results  of  the  old 
time  revivalist.  One  needs  not  go  far  back  into  the 
literature  of  Methodism,  when  this  church  was  oper- 
ating under  the  rule  of  the  six  months'  probation,  to 
discover  that  the  old  time  method  by  no  means 
gathered  all  the  seeming  results.  As  high  as  seventy 
and  even  ninety  per  cent  of  those  who  joined 
churches  on  probation  not  infrequently  dropped  out 
before  the  six  months '  period  had  expired  under  the 
old  methods  of  w^ork.  The  writer  recalls  a  revival 
at  which  ninety  joined  the  church  on  probation  and 
but  two  were  received  in  full  connection  six  months' 
later. 

But  note  the  reported  results  of  Mr.  Sunday's 
meetings.  At  Kansas  City,  Missouri,  a  hundred 
special  trains  were  arranged  for  to  bring  the  people 
as  far  as  two  hundred  miles  to  attend  the  services. 
No  building  in  the  city  could  be  secured  or  con- 

[91] 


EELIGIOUS  OPTIMISM 

structed  large  enough  to  accomodate  the  immense 
crows  that  attended.  In  Baltimore,  Mr.  Sunday 
preached  to  24,000  people  in  his  concluding  service. 
It  is  reported  that  about  20,000  on  a  certain  occasion, 
gathered  in  an  open  air  meeting  to  hear  George 
Whitfield.  At  the  four  services  of  the  last  day  of  this 
Baltimore  meeting,  Mr.  Sunday  addressed  96,000 
people.  In  Boston  the  number  of  ''trail  hitters" 
reached  the  astounding  total  of  63,484.  The  number 
who  signed  cards  was  48,903,  distributed  as  follows: 
Baptists  11,845,  Methodists  7,104,  Congregationalists 
6,195,  Episcopalians  3,275,  Presbyterians,  3,282, 
Evangelical  128,  Christians  118,  Friends  70,  Catholics, 
1,513,  Lutherans  892,  Unitarians  296,  Universalists 
128,  Christian  Science  239,  Hebrews  177 ;  besides  this 
thousands  undesignated  The  free  will  offering  to 
Mr.  Sunday  was  $55,000. 

Note  this  item  from  one  of  our  Advocates,  March 
7,  1917,  in  regard  to  the  preparation  for  the  coming 
of  Billy  Sunday :  ' '  The  tabernacle  in  New  York  will 
seat  20,000, — as  many  as  can  be  reached  by  the 
human  voice  —  but  it  is  predicted  on  the  first  night, 
when  the  doors  open,  100,000  people  will  be  standing 
outside  to  get  in.  The  crowd  will  be  handled  by  500 
ushers.  Three  choirs  will  be  trained,  consisting  of 
6,000  persons,  so  that  a  choir  of  2,000  may  be  main- 
tained and  always  have  fresh  voices."  Later  it  was 
reported  that  this  mission  closed  with  98,264  ''trail 
hitters"  and  a  free  will  offering  of  $110,000. 

One  fault  with  the  old  time  revival  was,  it  was  too 
individualistic.      It   contained   little    of    the    social 

[92] 


STUPENDOUS  REVIVALS 

appeal  and  often  did  little  to  correct  public  morals. 
But  Mr.  Sunday  is  given  credit  for  having  deter- 
mined 25,000  votes  for  prohibition  in  Colorado  and 
was  a  large  factor  in  making  the  state  dry — He  had  a 
like  influence  also  in  Michigan.  Andrew  Gillies, 
makes  this  estimate  of  Mr.  Sunday's  work:  ''The 
social  and  civic  results  of  his  work  are  beyond  calcu- 
lation. Whole  cities  experienced  moral  renovations. 
Wide  areas  undergo  revivals  of  business  honesty 
and  personal  purity.  And  whole  states  are  swept 
clean  of  that  pest  of  modern  life,  the  legalized 
saloon."^  It  is  as  true  today  as  in  the  past  that 
nothing  will  draw  people  in  such  crowds  as  a  really 
spirited  religious  meeting. 

If  we  must  build  the  church  by  the  method  of  the 
mass  appeal,  it  can  be  done  today  with  as  large  a 
measure  of  success  as  in  the  past.  But  we  think  we 
have  discovered  a  more  excellent  way. 

The  better  features  of  the  old  time  revival,  no 
doubt  will  be  and  should  be  resorted  to  in  the  future. 
By  its  use  in  a  modified  form  at  least  it  is  still  possible 
to  reap  real  fruitage.  A  new  and  better  method  need 
not  immediately  crowd  aside  the  old.  But  there  can 
be  no  harm  in  frankly  recognizing  the  limitations  and 
faults  of  the  older  method.  The  old  method  paid 
little  attention  to  religious  instruction.  It  had  little 
appreciation  of  the  principles  of  psychology  in- 
volved. It  was  too  exclusively  an  effort  on  the  part 
of  churches  to  gain  members.  It  necessarily  entered 
communities  where  little  or  no  preparation  had  been 


1  Methodist  Review. 

[93] 


KELIGIOUS  OPTIMISM 

made.  The  instructive  factor  in  the  preaching  was 
also  singularly  lacking.  The  sermon  was  but  little 
more  than  an  earnest,  passionate  appeal  for  imme- 
diate decision  and  action.  Notwithstanding,  it  is  to 
the  very  great  credit  of  these  earnest  workers  that 
they  accomplished  so  much  of  real  and  permanent 
value.  These  evangelists  of  the  early  day  simply  did 
their  best  with  the  tools  at  their  command,  and  midst 
conditions  under  which  they  were  compelled  to  work. 
We  will  do  well  if  we  are  able  to  match  their  earnest- 
ness, their  fervor,  their  passion  for  the  redemption 
of  men. 

The  point  here  emphasized  is  that  the  modern 
church  though  it  is  adopting  new  methods,  has  by 
no  means,  lost  the  evangelistic  passion;  and  it  is 
far  better  equipped  for  its  work.  Attention  is  also 
called  to  the  term  used.  The  older  work  was 
best  described  by  the  term  ''revivalism" — a  sort  of 
''explosive  outburst  of  Christ's  Kingdom."  Much 
of  its  effort  was  spent  in  awakening,  'reviving'  and 
reclaiming  the  backslider,  and  it  was  success  here 
rather  than  the  actual  gains  to  the  church  that  often 
made  the  results  seem  so  striking, 

"Evangelism"  is  the  better  term  for  the  modern 
passion  and  effort.  The  problem  of  evangelism — the 
problem  the  modern  church  has  set  itself  —  is  an  ex- 
tremely complex  one.  It  includes  revivalism,  but 
far  more.  It  has  to  do  with  the  awakening  of  inter- 
est, with  the  Christian  appeal,  with  Christian  educa- 
tion or  nurture,  with  the  effective  use  of  Biblical 
truth  and  the  fitting  of  this  truth  to  the  peculiar 

[94] 


STUPENDOUS  REVIVALS 

needs  of  this  new  age,  and  with  the  promulgation  of 
the  gospel  not  -only  in  the  home  land,  but  in  all  lands. 
Modern  evangelism  sets  itself  the  large  task  of 
making  Christianity  effective,  not  only  in  the  con- 
version of  the  individual,  but  in  the  development  of 
both  the  individual  and  society  to  their  highest 
possibility.  It  stands  ''for  the  perfecting  of  the 
saints,  for  the  work  of  the  ministry,  for  the  edifying 
of  the  body  of  Christ :  Till  we  all  come  in  the  Unity 
of  the  faith,  and  the  knowledge  of  the  Son  of  God, 
unto  a  perfect  man,  unto  the  measure  of  the  stature 
of  the  fullness  of  Christ."^  Its  aim  also  is  to  estab- 
lish that  new  Kingdom  —  the  new  heavens  and  the 
new  earth  —  wherein  shall  dwell,  socially  and  inter- 
nationally,  righteousness   and  brotherhood. 

Evangelistic  work  today  includes  a  hundred  and 
one  things  hardly  thought  of  two  generations  ago. 
And  this  is  true  of  the  foreign  field  as  well  as  of  the 
home  field.  Even  in  the  foreign  field,  among  un- 
taught peoples,  the  earlier  missionary  effort  was 
largely  revivalistic.  It  is  now  evangelistic.  It  con- 
cerns itself  with  the  entire  life  of  the  individual  and 
community.  It  interests  itself  in  manual  training, 
agriculture,  sanitation,  hospitals,  dispensaries, 
schools,  with  social  conditions,  in  short  with  the 
entire  well  being  of  the  people,  as  well  as  in  the 
religious  instruction  and  religious  appeal. 

It  is  a  long  step  from  that  of  simply  calling  a 
single  soul  to  repentance,  to  the  full  redemption  of 
that  soul  both  as  an  individual  and  as  he  is  related  to 


1  Ephesians  4:12-13. 

[95] 


RELIGIOUS  OPTIMISM 

society.  It  is  a  long  step  from  simply  making  an 
appeal  for  new  members  for  a  local  churcli,  to  that 
of  making  that  church  effective  in  building  up  the 
local  community  life,  and  in  carrying  its  full  share  of 
the  redemption  of  the  heathen  world.  Modern 
evangelism  is  pledged  to  this  larger  task.  Its  work 
is  not  so  spectacular.  It  is  deeper  and  far  more  com- 
prehensive. It  is  devoted  to  the  study  of  child 
nature  with  the  thought  of  intelligently  fitting  itself 
to  the  child's  need,  and  does  much  of  its  work 
through  the  Sunday  School.  Along  with  the  declara- 
tion of  the  gospel,  it  gives  itself  to  a  study  of  indivi- 
dual and  social  psychology  and  is  thus  saved  from 
much  of  the  crude  work  of  the  past.  It  gives  atten- 
tion to  the  correction  of  social  wrong,  and  the  im- 
provement of  social  conditions  with  a  view  of  helping 
to  make  possible  wholesome  Christian  living. 

Not  only  does  it  include  many  things  that  were 
left  out  by  the  old  evangelism,  —  it  has  lost  interest 
in  things  that  engaged  the  thought  and  energies  of 
our  fathers.  It  is  wasting  little  time  in  antagonizing 
other  denominations,  but  seeks  co-operation  with  all 
recognized  branches  of  Christianity  in  the  world 
task  of  building  the  Master's  kingdom.  The  battle 
now  is  not  so  much  between  Protestantism  and 
Catholicism,  or  between  Calvinism  and  Arminianism, 
or  the  Methodists  and  the  Disciples.  It  is  between  sin 
and  righteousness.  ''The  weightier  matters  of  the 
law   have   finally   gotten    their   chance   against   the 

[96] 


STUPENDOUS  REVIVALS 

tithed  mint,  anise  and  cummin  of  a  sectarianism 
which  passed  for  religion."^ 

With  a  full,  rich,  authentic  New  Testament 
evangel,  modern  evangelism  has  wheeled  into  line 
'with  contemporary  life/  It  does  not  fear  to  use 
modern  agencies.  It  is  looking  to  psychology  and 
social  science  for  guidance  without  breaking  with  the 
Bible,  for  truth  and  inspiration.  It  fully  appre- 
ciates the  bigness  of  the  task  with  all  its  immense 
and  intricate  complexities,  and  it  is  supplementing, 
not  discarding,  the  old  evangelism  with  all  the 
weapons  of  this  new  age  in  an  effort  to  master  that 
task.  That  task  is  not  mere  revivalism  but  the  full 
realization  of  the  ideals  of  Jesus  for  both  the  in- 
dividual and  society,  and  the  realization  of  these 
ideals  for  all  peoples  the  world  around.  This  kind 
of  evangelism  is  prevalent  and  growing  in  all  the 
great  denominations. 

The  chief  point  to  be  made  here,  however,  is  that 
evangelistic  results,  by  whatever  method,  are  greater 
today  than  ever  before  in  the  history  of  the  Chris- 
tian Church;  that  the  better  features  of  the  old 
revivalism  may  still  be  effectively  used;  that  we  need 
not  look  to  the  past  alone  for  sweeping  victories. 
The  present  decade  has  witnessed  triumphs  along 
every  line  of  religious  endeavor  of  a  character  little 
dreamed  of  by  the  great  revivalists  of  the  earlier  day. 
Can  it  be  that  the  church  is  just  entering  upon  its 

Creed'?i'.^l36.^'"'^°'    ^''^'^'*    McDowell— "The    New    Age    and    Its 

[97] 


RELIGIOUS  OPTIMISM 

Golden  Age  in  Sunday  School  work,  in  evangelistic 
passion  and  activity  and  in  missionary  conquest  all 
at  one  time? 


[98 


THE  ONGOINGS  OF  HISTORY 


"No  phenomena  in  history  are  more  marked,  nor  probably 
more  fraught  with  significance,  than  the  change  which  in 
the  last  century —  it  might  be  truly  said  within  the  last 
twenty-five  years  —  has  come  into  the  thought  of  the  Chris- 
tian Church  with  reference  to  Missions.  The  Missionary 
enterprise  is  now  a  common  enthusiasm  of  Protestantism." 

George  P.  Maines. 
^'Christianity  and  the  New  Age." 

"Any  social  order  that  is  to  endure  must  be  built  on  a 
world-wide  scale.  It  follows  that  a  social  religion  must  be 
a  missionary  religion,  carrying  enlightened  social  values, 
social  patterns,  civilization  as  it  has  been  developed  to  all 
peoples.  It  was  no  accident,  therefore,  that  Jesus,  if  his 
religion  was  truly  social  and  humanitarian,  as  we  have 
argued,  commanded  his  followers  to  go  and  make  disciples 
of  all  nations.  Neither  is  it  an  accident  that  historical 
Christianity  at  its  best  has  always  been  a  missionary  re- 
ligion." 

Charles  A.  Ellwood, 
"The  Reconstruction  of  Religion/' 


CHAPTER  XII 
The  Ongoings  of  History 

FOREIGN  missions,  so  far  as  they  have  been  pro- 
moted by  American  churches,  are,  for  the  most 
part,  a  work  of  the  past  one  hundred  years.  The 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church  first  engaged  in  this 
branch  of  religious  activity  in  1819.  Its  recent  Cen- 
tenary movement  was  a  celebration  of  this  event.  It 
was  not  till  1813  that  the  English  Parliament  allowed 
Missionaries  to  go  to  India.  The  American  Board 
was  founded  1810,  the  Baptist  Board  1814,  the  Protes- 
tant Episcopal  Missionary  Society  1820,  the  United 
Presbyterian  Missionary  Society  1859.  It  is  not  too 
much  to  say  that  the  real  success  of  foreign  missions 
belongs  to  the  past  generation,  and  today,  missionary 
activity  marks  the  chief  ongoings  of  history.  To  obey 
the  divine  command  **Go  teach  all  Nations"  has  be- 
come the  leading  passion  of  the  modern  church. 

From  1650  to  1800,  a  period  of  one  hundred  fifty 
years,  twelve  missionary  societies  were  formed.  From 
1800  to  1830,  a  period  of  thirty  years,  twenty-two 
were  formed,  —  that  is  almost  twice  as  many  in 
thirty  years  as  in  the  previous  hundred  and  fifty 
years.    Now  watch  these  siocieties  grow: 

1830  to  1840 16 

1840  to  1850 25 

1850  to  1860  34 

[lOl] 


KELIGIOUS  OPTIMISM 

1860  to  1870  41 

1870  to  1880 57 

1880  to  1890  92 

1890  to  1900  100 

In  1880  the  income  in  all  missionary  treasuries  was 
$75,000.  In  1900  the  income  of  all  treasuries  was 
$19,000,000.  In  1920  it  was  $40,000,000.  In  1600, 
seven  per  cent  of  the  territory  of  the  world  was  con- 
trolled by  Christian  nations;  in  1900,  eighty-two  per 
cent  of  the  territory  of  the  world  was  controlled  by 
Christian  nations.  In  1921,  $56,000,000  was  given 
for  Protestant  missionaries  all  told.  The  United 
States  and  Canada  gave  $41,000,000,  England  gave 
$12,000,000,  the  remainder  of  Europe  $3,000,000. 

Note  the  following  table  indicating  gifts  to  Missions 
in  the  United  States  and  Canada : 

1900 $6,000,000 

1904 8,000,000 

1908 10,000,000 

1910 12,000,000 

1912 15,000,000 

1915 18,774,000 

1916 20,405,000 

1917 20,437,000 

1918 22,182,000 

1919 30,872,000 

1920 40,204,595 

During  the  four  years  from  1898  to  1902,  seven 
hundred  eighty  volunteer  students  sailed  for  the 
foreign  field.  During  the  next  four  years  one  thou- 
sand sailed.    During  the  next  four  years  twelve  hun- 

[102] 


THE  ONGOINGS  OF  HISTORY 

dred  eighty,  and  during  the  next,  ending  with  1914, 
two  thousand  sailed. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century,  there 
were  about  50,000  heathen  converts.  At  the  beginning 
of  the  twentieth,  about  3,000,000.  At  the  beginning 
of  the  nineteenth  century  there  were  no  open  doors 
to  the  heathen  field.  At  the  beginning  of  the  twen- 
tieth, there  were  no  closed  doors  —  all  barriers  had 
been  broken  down,  and  heathen  lands  were  inviting 
the  coming  of  the  missionary.  As  one  has  expressed 
it:  ''At  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
there  was  an  occasional  outpost  at  some  strategical 
point.  At  the  beginning  of  the  twentieth,  there  were 
ten  thousand  batteries  at  as  many  strategical  points." 

But  the  real  missionary  progress  has  been  made 
during  the  first  twenty  years  of  the  twentieth  cen- 
tury. "In  the  entire  heathen  world  the  number  of 
employed  missionaries  from  Christian  lands  approxi- 
mates about  21,500,  to  which  are  to  be  added  105,000 
native  workers.  The  direct  fruitage  of  missionary 
efforts  in  the  fields  occupied  is  represented  by  more 
than  7,000,000  living  native  Christians."  Had  the 
Church  of  God  nothing  to  show  to  its  credit  for  the 
past  fifty  years  but  its  missionary  conquests,  these 
alone  would  constitute  a  real  marvel  in  religious 
history. 

Sherwood  Eddy  in  a  visit  to  China,  1915,  spoke  in 
twelve  cities  to  121,000  members  of  the  educated 
classes,  admitted  by  ticket  only,  in  an  effort  to  reach 
the  leaders  of  China.  As  a  result,  seven  thousand 
high  officials,  scholars,   and  ruling  gentrymen,  who 

,    [103] 


RELIGIOUS  OPTIMISM 

practically  hold  the  destiny  of  the  nation  in  their 
hands,  turned  to  Christianity  and  are  now  enrolled 
in  classes  for  Bible  study. 

The  first  missionary  conference  in  China  was  held 
in  1877.  At  that  time  the  communicant  strength 
numbered  less  than  14,000.  In  1890,  when  the  second 
great  conference  convened,  the  Protestant  Church 
membership  had  increased  threefold  (37,287).  By 
1907,  when  the  third  great  conference  was  held,  thirty 
years  after  the  first  conference,  an  increase  of  thir- 
teen fold  was  reported.  When  the  National  Christian 
conference  met  in  May,  1922,  the  numbered  com- 
municant strength  of  the  Protestant  Church  in  China 
approximated  375,000.  This  is  over  four-fold  the 
strength  of  the  church  twenty  years  ago,  to  say  noth- 
ing of  the  great  increase  in  native  leadership,  large 
Christian  institutions  and  the  influence  of  the  Chris- 
tian Church,  all  of  which  are  beyond  the  power  of 
figures  and  words  to  describe. 

**  Because  of  an  absurdly  inadequate  missionary 
force,"  writes  Bishop  Frank  W.  Wame  concerning 
India,  '^we  have  had  to  deny  admission  into  the 
Methodist  Church  a  waiting  list  in  India  alone  of 
160,000  hungry  souls.  In  addition  to  this,  the  people 
who  are  just  beginning  to  turn  to  Christ  number 
500,000  to  1,000,000.  In  the  caste  in  which  the  mass 
movement  is  spreading,  there  are  11,000,000  and  the 
total  community  among  whom  the  movement  is  work- 
ing numbers  50,000,000. ' ' 

The  significance  of  this  waiting  list  of  160,000,  with 
over  500,000  just  turning,  will  become  apparent  when 

[104] 


THE  ONGOINGS  OF  HISTORY 

it  is  remembered  tliat  there  were  only  500,000  follow- 
ers of  Christ  at  the  end  of  the  first  century's  efforts. 
Another  writes:  '^Churches  are  packed  to  the  doors 
in  Mexico.  In  previous  times,  the  annual  sale  of  the 
Bible  and  parts  of  the  Bible  reached,  as  a  high-water 
mark,  22,000.  The  sale  for  the  year  1915  reached 
63,000,  and  Missionaries  state  that  tens  of  thousands 
more  could  have  been  sold  had  works  been  available. 
Bishop  Stuntz,  referring  to  South  America,  recently 
declared:  ''Never  in  the  history  of  the  Continent 
have  so  many  converts  been  gathered  together  as  have 
been  in  the  past  year."  And  thus  the  story  runs  in 
every  kindred  tribe  and  tongue  in  which  missionary 
effort  is  being  carried  on. 

In  1907,  the  Presbyterian  communicants  on  the 
foreign  field  numbered  70,477;  in  1917,  there  were 
161,470;  in  1922,  the  native  church  members  num- 
bered 196,175. 

The  recent  Baptist  convention  held  June  14-20, 
1922,  at  Indianapolis,  reported  that:  ''In  Africa  an 
evangelistic  ingathering  has  been  taking  place  which 
has  served  to  recall  the  historic  Pentecost  on  the 
Congo,  thirty-five  years  ago.  The  Burma  Mission 
reports  4,783  baptisms  during  the  year,  making  a 
total  church  membership  of  73,653.  One  of  the  most 
encouraging  reports  comes  by  cablegram  from  the 
new  field  north  of  Kentung,  Burma,  across  the 
Chinese  border,  where  since  January  1,  1922,  more 
than  2,500  converts  have  been  baptized.  Missionaries 
in  Assam  have  written  of  unusually  large  accessions 
of  church  membership.     India  never  seems  to  have 

[105] 


EELIGIOUS  OPTIMISM 

been  so  wide  open  to  the  gospel  as  it  is  today.  Letters 
from  Russia  reveal  an  astonishing  growth  in  Baptist 
churches  there.  According  to  the  estimate  of  Russian 
leaders,  the  proposed  union  of  the  two  Baptist  bodies 
now  known  as  the  All-Russian  Baptist  Union  and  the 
All-Russian  Evangelical  Christian  Union,  would  con- 
stitute the  second  largest  Baptist  body  in  the  world, 
with  about  2,000,000  members.'" 

The  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  enjoyed  during 
the  year  1921,  in  the  foreign  field,  the  largest  increase 
by  far  ever  reported  —  37,520.  This  increase  is  more 
than  double  the  average  increase  for  the  three  years 
— 1917,  1918,  1919.  During  the  same  year,  one  hun- 
dred seventy-five  new  missionaries  were  sent  abroad. 
There  are  1,386  native  preachers  who  are  full  members 
of  the  conferences,  which  is  an  increase  of  138  over  the 
preceding  year ;  284  natives  are  in  preparatory  mem- 
bership in  the  conferences,  an  increase  of  78.  There 
are  18,377  other  preachers  and  workers,  which  means 
the  remarkable  increase  of  3,406  in  a  single  year. 
There  are  10,734  Sunday  Schools,  an  increase  of  541 
in  the  year,  with  491,233  scholars,  an  increase  of 
39,186.  The  report  for  this  year  (1922)  also  shows 
an  increase  of  122  churches.  The  financial  strength 
of  the  foreign  work  of  this  denomination  is  sho^Ti 
by  the  fact  that  $2,919,609  was  raised  for  self-support. 

At  the  Cleveland  Missionary  Convention,  1902, 
Bishop  Andrews  made  the  following  fine  contrast: 


1  Much  attention  is  also  now  given  to  the  study  of  Missions. 
Thousands  of  people  are  organized  in  what  are  called  mission  study 
classes.  In  1921  the  Presbyterian  Church  thus  had  an  enrollment 
of  137,849.     1922  saw  an  enrollment  of  179,630. 

[io6] 


THE  ONGOINGS  OF  HISTORY 

' '  Contrast  the  beginning  and  end  of  the  last  century. 
Use  the  elaborate  and  reliable  tables  prepared  by  Dr. 
Dennis.  What  do  they  declare?  On  the  one  hand 
perhaps  six  or  eight  missionary  societies;  on  the 
other,  more  than  five  hundred,  half  of  them  immed- 
iately working  in  the  foreign  fields,  and  the  other 
auxilliary  to  them.  On  the  one  hand,  perhaps  one 
hundred  ordained  ministers  laboring  in  the  foreign 
lands;  on  the  other,  six  thousand  ordained  mission- 
aries in  those  fields,  assisted  by  perhaps  twice  that 
number  of  unordained  missionaries,  physicians, 
teachers,  printers,  helpers  of  all  sorts.  On  the  one 
hand,  a  Church  so  small  as  scarcely  to  be  counted ;  on 
the  other,  a  Church  in  heathen  lands  of  one  and  a 
half  million  communicants,  with  a  Christian  popula- 
tion of  three  times  that  number.  On  the  one  hand, 
no  native  helper  of  whom  we  know  aught;  on  the 
other,  seventy  thousand  native  helpers,  of  whom  four 

thousand  are  ordained  ministers Yet  more 

prophetic  are  the  native  schools  with  more  than  a 
million  pupils,  one-third  of  them  in  advanced  studies, 
preparing  for  wide  influence  in  society  and  the 
Church.  Consider  also  the  one  hundred  and  sixty 
mission  presses,  issuing  a  vast  volume  of  Christian 
literature  in  many  tongues.  The  century  began  with 
perhaps  forty  versions  of  the  Bible  open  for  one- 
fiftieth  of  the  race;  it  closed  with  four  hundred  and 
fifty  —  a  gift  of  Pentecostal  tongues  to  four-fifths  of 
the  race." 

Had  he  lived  to  see  the  present  day,  it  would  be 
interesting  indeed  to  note  what  contrast  and  hopeful 


RELIGIOUS  OPTIMISM 

observations  the  bishop  might  have  made  concerning 
the  first  twenty  years  of  the  present  century,  par- 
ticularly concerning  the  Centenary  movement  in  his 
own  church,  which  single-handed,  raised  $105,000,- 
000  for  home  and  foreign  missions,  to  be  paid  in  a 
period  of  five  years. 

In  the  quadrennium  1912-16  the  total  receipts  of 
the  Board  of  Home  Missions  and  Church  Extension 
from  all  sources  were  $4,495,826.  In  1919-20  the 
receipts  were  $6,612,593,  and  in  1920-21  the  receipts 
will  be  $5,347,842.  This  is,  for  a  single  year,  $552,- 
016  more  than  for  the  whole  quadrennium  previously, 
and  last  year  was  $1,116,667  more  than  for  the  total 
quadrennium  preceding. 

For  the  Foreign  Board  the  total  receipts  from  all 
sources  for  the  entire  four  years  of  the  1912-16  quad- 
rennium were  $6,311,261,  and  for  the  last  year  were 
$6,612,593,  so  that  last  year's  receipts  were  $300,000 
more  in  a  single  year  than  were  received  in  the  whole 
quadrennium  preceding/ 

Look  at  the  magnificent  result  for  the  year: 

Centenary    $14,290,792 

The    Woman's    Foreign    Missionary 

Society    2,267,767 

The  Woman's  Home  Missionary  So- 
ciety         2,828,797 

Total  $19,387,356 


1  Figures  taken  from  an  address  by  Bishop  Thomas  Nicholson,  at 
the  Detroit  Conference — 1921, 

[io8] 


THE  ONGOINGS  OF  HISTORY 

This  sum  given  by  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 
is  greater  than  that  given  by  all  the  churches  in  1900. 
As  an  index  to  many  modern  movements,  take  the 
Women's  Foreign  Missionary  Society  of  this  church, 
founded  in  1869.  In  fifty  years  this  society  had 
raised  $20,000,000,  gained  a  membership  of  400,000, 
and  had  sent  600  missionaries  to  the  field.  Prepara- 
tory to  celebrating  its  fiftieth  anniversary,  it  set  up, 
1914,  a  number  of  goals  to  be  reached  by  1919.  The 
goals  were : 

Magazines    180,000 

Money $1,600,000 

Missionaries   1,000 

Members  400,000 

Before  the  five  years  expired,  the  money  goal  was 
increased  to  $2,000,000.  Their  Jubilee  report  for 
1919,  was 

Magazines,  212,333,  gain  in  five  years  of  41%. 
Money,  $2,006,370,  a  gain  in  five  years  of  over  100%. 
Missionaries,  1087. 
Members,  459,498,  a  gain  of  44%. 

The  report  for  1921,  including  tuitions,  was  $2,- 
686,301,  and  the  membership  had  increased  to  613,- 
768,  making  this  the  largest  woman's  organization  in 
the  world. 

The  "Women's  Home  Missionary  Society  has  a  mem- 
bership of  428,169  and  raised  last  year  $2,716,453. 
Its  work  is  largely  that  of  Christianizing  and  Ameri- 
canizing the  foreign  element  in  this  country.  It 
claims  to  be  the  largest  Americanization  organization 
in  our  country. 

[109] 


EELIGIOUS  OPTIMISM 

Here  are  two  women's  organizations  in  a  single 
denomination  with  a  membership  aggregating  over  a 
million  and  with  an  annual  income  of  about  five  and 
one-half  million  dollars  devoted  entirely  to  altruistic 
and  missionary  work.  No  other  age  in  the  history  of 
the  Christian  church  can  make  such  a  showing.  This 
is  the  day  of  Christianity's  very  greatest  conquests, 
both  in  the  home  and  foreign  field,  and  these  con- 
quests very  largely  constitute  the  ongoings  of  history. 


ii(»] 


BY-PRODUCTS  OF  THE  CHURCH 


"The  race  has  now  crossed  the  Great  Divide  of  human 
history,  and  numberless  streams  of  tendency  are  all  un- 
consciously moving  toward  the  oneness  of  the  great  future." 

Josiah  Strong. 


CHAPTER  llll 

By-Products  of  the  Church 

MUCH  of  the  very  best  fruits  of  the  church  is 
to  be  found  in  its  by-products.  The  Christian 
Church  itself  is  not  only  growing  by  leaps  and 
bounds,  but  at  the  same  time  it  is  inspiring  many 
allied  religious  activities  which  in  the  aggregate 
may  nearly  equal  the  influence  of  the  church  proper. 

Not  long  since  the  writer  overheard  a  ''doleful 
saint"  deploring  the  low  condition  of  religion  in  a 
certain  city  of  about  8,000  population.  We  replied 
off-hand,  that  ''there  was  twice  as  much  religion  in 
the  town  as  six  years  ago."  Asked  to  explain,  we 
were  able  to  say:  "Of  the  twelve  churches,  every  one 
is  as  strong  and  some  of  them  very  much  stronger 
than  they  were  a  half  dozen  years  ago.  Besides,  dur- 
ing that  time,  we  have  built  at  a  cost  of  $80,000,  a 
modern  Young  Men's  Christian  Association,  which 
has  supplemented  the  work  of  the  churches  by  its 
Bible  classes  and  numerous  religious  activities.  We 
have  built  a  fine  new  hospital  at  a  cost  of  $150,000, 
.and  are  treating  nearly  1,000  cases  a  year — one-fifth 
of  this  work  is  extended  free  to  those  unable  to  pay. 
We  have  thoroughly  organized  our  charities  and 
keep  the  treasury  so  well  supplied  that  no  family  is 
in  want  in  the  city.  We  are  maintaining  a  trained 
county    nurse,    a    trained    school    nurse,    a    county 

[113] 


EELIGIOUS  OPTIMISM 

physician  on  salary,  so  that  the  poor  are  receiving 
adequate  medical  care  and  treatment,  and  we  have 
voted  out  the  saloon  by  a  majority  of  2,000,  and  are 
succeeding  in  keeping  it  out.  Your  old  time  religion 
of  ten  years  ago  was  content  to  confine  itself  largely 
to  comfortable  churches  and  to  take  little  interest  in 
these  modern  activities." 

We  freelyi  admit,  of  course,  that  our  modern 
Christian  activities  were  largely  born  of  that  earlier 
faith  and  zeal,  but  the  modern  church,  while  by  no 
means  exhausted  in  faith  and  spirit,  is  giving  itself 
in  service  in  a  measure  never  before  known  in  the 
history  of  Christianity.  Take  the  matter  of  Christian 
charity  within  the  church:  —  ''Of  the  charity 
workers  of  the  country,  92  per  cent  are  church 
members."^ 

What  a  wonderful  stream  of  healing  and  blessing 
it  has  been!  ''Washing  away  so  many  tears,  soften- 
ing so  much  suffering,  saving  so  many  young  lives 
from  misery  and  sin,  ministering  to  so  many  death- 
beds, making  the  solitary  evening  of  life  sweet  to  so 
many  forsaken  ones,  and  the  morning  glad  to  so 
many  who  would  have  been  born  to  sorrow  and 
shame ;  which  in  so  many  countries  has  cared  for  the 
sick,  the  blind,  the  deaf,  the  crippled,  the  outcast 
and  tempted,  the  young,  the  orphan,  the  foundling, 
and  the  aged.  Surely,  if  anything  is  a  foregleam 
of  that  kingdom  of  heaven  which  is  yet  to  shine  on 
earth,  it  is  the  brotherhood  of  spirit  shown  in  the 


1  Arthur  J.  Brown,  Secretary  of  the  Presbyterian  Board  of 
Forei^  Missions,  in  an  address  which  appeared  in  the  Christian 
Pacific  Advocate,  Sept,  26,  1918. 

["4] 


BY-PRODUCTS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

charity  of  the  modern  world.'"  This  is  most  distinctly 
a  fruit  of  Christ's  teaching. 

The  Year  Book  of  the  Churches  for  1921-1922  lists 
some  250  undenominational  and  interdenominational 
agencies  organized  to  serve  on  lines  in  accord  with  the 
spirit  and  purpose  of  Christ.  And  this  list  is  by  no 
means  complete.  We  shall  name  but  a  few.  These 
movements  are  virtually  all  modern.  They  belong  to 
the  "New  Time  Religion." 

The  Young  Men 's  Christian  Association  is  a  modern 
institution.*  In  North  America  alone  there  are  2,120 
Associations,  with  a  membership  of  just  about  one 
million,  of  which  220,000  are  boys.  The  property 
valuation  amounts  to  $150,000,000,  with  an  annual 
operating  expenditure  of  $50,000,000.  These  figures 
do  not  include  money  spent  for  war  work.  How  varied 
are  the  activities  of  this  institution,  the  following 
items  will  indicate:  70,000  socials  and  entertain- 
ments, 85,000  positions  found  through  the  employ- 
ment section,  345,000  different  men  and  boys  regis- 
tered in  gymnasium  classes,  122,000  different  men 
and  boys  enrolled  in  educational  courses,  118,000  in 
regular  courses  of  Bible  Study,  36,000  decisions  for 
Christ,  and  11,000  united  with  churches.  Friends  of 
this  institution  gave  $167,000,000  for  war  work  and 
$158,000,000  was  actually  spent  on  the  field  in  help- 
ful service.^ 

The  Young  Women's  Christian  Association  is  still 
more  modern  and  can  boast  of  a  marvelous  record  in 


1  O.  L.  Brace  "Gesta  Christi"  p.  101. 

2  First  Organized  in  America  1851,  in  England  1844. 

3  Tlie  World  Almanac. 

["5] 


RELIGIOUS  OPTIMISM 

Christian  service.  In  the  United  States  it  has  about 
1,100  associations,  a  membership  of  560,000,  with 
property  value  of  $20,500,000.  Its  budget  for  1921 
was  over  $19,000,000. 

The  Salvation  Army  is  quite  a  modern  movement.* 
But  already  its  drum-beat  is  heard  in  every  city  of 
any  importance  around  the  world.  For  the  year  end- 
ing December,  1920,  this  modern  religious  movement 
reports  the  following  international  statistics:  Coun- 
tries occupied,  70 ;  languages  in  which  it  is  preaching 
the  Gospel,  42;  number  of  corps,  11,000;  social  insti- 
tutions, 1,276;  day  schools,  751;  naval  and  military 
homes,  41 ;  periodicals  issued,  82.  Its  activities  for  a 
single  year  are  nothing  short  of  marvelous.  Speaking 
only  for  the  United  States,  notice  this  record  for  the 
year  ending  1920 :  Employment  found  for  52,000  men 
and  13,000  women;  260,000  pounds  of  ice  and  3,000,- 
000  pounds  of  coal  distributed;  290,000  Christmas 
dinners  furnished  and  toys  given  to  125,000  children, 
1,555,000  beds  and  495,000  meals  supplied.'  But  fig- 
ures become  too  tedious  in  an  effort  to  relate  what  this 
institution  is  doing,  which  serves  where  service  is 
most  needed. 

Hospital  work  by  Protestant  churches  is  a  modern 
enterprise.  One  hundred  years  ago  there  was  not  a 
hospital  or  trained  physician  in  the  non-Christian 
world.    Now  there  are  hundreds  of  hospitals  and  dis- 


2  The  movement  started  in  1865.     It  took  the  name   "Salvation 
Army"  1878. 

[ii6] 


BY-PRODUCTS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

pensaries  treating  literally  millions  of  eases.* 
The  Methodist  Church  entered  upon  hospital  work  in 
1887.  It  now  has  over  fifty  hospitals  in  the  United 
States  worth  $10,000,000  with  endowments  of  nearly 
$5,000,000,  and  is  treating  100,000  patients  a  year,  a 
large  amount  of  which  work  is  free. 

The  Deaconess  movement  in  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church,  so  closely  associated  with  hospital  work, 
has  sprung  up  within  the  past  generation.  Already 
its  property  value  in  the  United  States  is  $12,767,000. 
In  Europe,  it  is  $1,500,000.  In  the  United  States 
there  are  881  Deaconesses,  142  probationers,  and  503 
associate  workers.  The  total  number  in  the  United 
States  is  1,526,  and  in  Europe,  907.  Note  the 
activities  of  this  young  organization  for  the  year 
1921:  Families  visited,  362,524;  sick  people  visited, 
62,434;  bewildered  travelers  assisted  in  railroad  sta- 
tions, 6,844;  patients  treated  in  Deaconess  hospitals, 
38,538 ;  volume  of  free  work  to  needy  people  in  these 
hospitals,  $206,144;  students  in  training  for  nurses, 
579;  children  taken  to  summer  camps,  11,583;  chil- 
dren taught  by  deaconess  industrial  schools,  167,128; 
boys  and  girls  being  taught  in  deaconess  training 
schools,  556. 

The  Women's  Christian  Temperance  Union  is  a 
modern  movement,  founded  in  1874,  but  it  has  been 
extraordinarily  fruitful  in  good  works  and  has  become 
one  of  the  largest  women's  organizations  in  the  world. 


1  I  have  seen  the  statement  that  there  are  over  700  hospitals 
and  dispensaries  in  the  foreign  field  which  treat  annually  10,000,000 
cases,  but  I  have  been  unable  up  to  date  to  verify  these  figures. 
Indeed  so  new  is  protestant  hospital  work  that  it  is  extremely 
difficult  to  get  information. 

["7] 


RELIGIOUS  OPTIMISM 

Its  work  has  been  carried  on  under  six  general  depart- 
ments: organization,  preventive,  educational,  evan- 
gelistic, legal  and  social.  How  very  varied  are  the 
activities  of  each  of  these  departments  will  be  seen 
by  analyzing  but  two.  Take  for  examples  the  depart- 
ments of  organization  and  education.  Under  organ- 
ization, we  note  such  sub-heads  as:  Lecturers  and 
evangelists.  Young  Women's  branch,  Loyal  Temper- 
ance  Legion  branch;  work  among  Foreign  speaking 
people;  work  among  the  colored;  work  among  the 
Indians.  Under  the  department  of  education  are  to 
be  found  such  sub-heads  as:  Scientific  Temperance 
Instruction;  Physical  Education;  Temperance  Liter- 
ature; Presenting  Our  Cause  to  Influential  Bodies; 
Temperance  and  Labor;  the  Press;  Anti-Narcotics; 
School  Savings  Banks ;  Kindergarten ;  Medal  Contests, 
and  so  forth  for  each  of  the  six  departments.  Through 
the  influence  of  this  organization,  every  state  in  the 
Union  has  enacted  legislation  providing  for  the  teach- 
ing of  physiology  and  hygiene  in  the  public  schools, 
with  special  reference  to  the  effect  of  alcohol  and  nar- 
cotics. Laws  raising  the  age  of  consent  have  been 
passed  in  most  of  the  States  also  as  a  result  of  the 
influence  of  this  organization.  It  aided  greatly  in 
the  passage  of  the  anti-canteen  law,  also  in  securing 
the  law  prohibiting  the  sale  of  liquor  and  fire-arms 
to  the  native  races  in  the  Pacific  Islands.  It  has 
preached  the  gospel  of  social  purity  and  the  single 
standard  of  morals  in  practically  every  city  of  im- 
portance the  world  around.  This  organization  was 
teaching  intelligent  patriotism  and  Americanism  by 

[ii8] 


BY-PRODUCTS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

placing  our  Flag  in  schools,  libraries,  public  halls, 
and  by  many  other  means,  a  generation  before  the 
outbreak  of  the  Great  War,  and  who  knows,  with  our 
polyglot  population,  and  hyphenated  citizenship 
whether  or  not  our  patriotism,  without  this  teaching, 
would  have  stood  the  test  of  that  Great  War.  It  was 
very  influential,  if  not  the  chief  factor,  in  securing 
the  eighteenth  amendment  providing  for  national 
prohibition. 

An  international  branch  has  been  formed  under  the 
title  "World's  Women's  Christian  Temperance  Un- 
ion ' '  and  it  has  extended  into  over  fifty  nations  of  the 
world.  The  ' '  Round  the  World  Missionaries ' '  —  able 
speakers  and  organizers,  have  literally  carried  their 
gospel  to  the  ends  of  the  earth.  Perhaps  the  most  con- 
spicuous piece  of  work  by  the  world's  branch  was  the 
polyglot  petition  for  Home  Protection,  addressed  to  the 
governments  of  the  world.  The  petition  was  written 
by  Miss  Willard.  It  was  circulated  throughout  the 
world  and  the  signatures  came  in  fifty  languages. 
The  petition  bore  1,121,200  names,  including  350,000 
from  Great  Britain.  It  was  presented  to  our  govern- 
ment through  President  Cleveland,  February  19,  1897. 
All  this  is  a  new  and  wholesome  force  in  our  modern 
Christianity.  It  is  worthy  of  remark  that  the  two 
largest  women's  organizations  in  the  world  are  both 
Christian  organizations  —  the  Woman's  Foreign  Mis- 
sionary Society  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 
and  the  Women's  Christian  Temperance  Union. 

The  Daily  Vacation  Bible  School  is  a  movement 
that  has  sprung  up  within  this  century.  In  1901,  there 

[119] 


RELIGIOUS  OPTIMISM 

were  but  four  of  these  schools  being  operated  in 
mission  churches  in  New  York  City.  The  movement 
rapidly  spread  to  other  cities.  This  summer — 1922 
— greater  New  York  is  operating  250  schools  and 
Chicago  has  opened  over  200  with  an  anticipated 
enrollment  of  over  30,000  boys  and  girls.  The 
country  at  large  will  have  over  4,000  such  schools. 
The  movement  has  already  extended  to  the  Orient, 
and  Pekin  has  42  schools.  The  attendance  is  volun- 
tary and  the  program  varied — including  marches, 
drills,  Bible  stories,  music,  character  stories,  memory 
work  and  many  kinds  of  hand  craft  activities.  The 
term  is  five  or  six  weeks — two  hours  a  day.  This 
work  is  popular  with  both  parents  and  children. 

The  Student  Volunteer  Movement  is  modern.  It 
was  started  in  1886.  Since  which  time  over  7,000 
student  volunteers  recruited  by  this  agency  have 
been  accepted  by  the  various  missionary  boards  and 
sent  to  the  foreign  field. 

But  what  more  need  we  say,  for  time  would  fail 
us  to  trace  the  work  and  influence  of  such  modern 
Christian  activities  as  the  Gideon  Movement, 
Pocket  Testament  League,  Red  Cross,  Life  Service 
Commissions;  Orphanages,  American  Mission  to 
Lepers,  Christian  Unity  Foundation,  Religious  Edu- 
cation Association,  American  Sunday  School  Union, 
Commission  on  Inter-Racial  Cooperation,  American 
Tract  Society,  American  Bible  Society,  Commission 
on  Evangelism  and  Life  Service,  National  Testament 
and  Tract  League,  Family  Altar  League,  Carnegie 
Foundation  for  Advancement  of  Teaching,  Rocke- 

[120] 


BY-PRODUCTS  OP  THE  CHURCH 

feller  Foundation,  American  National  Red  Cross, 
Boy  Scouts,  Big  Sister  Movement,  American  Peace 
Society,  World's  Purity  Federation,  Anti-Saloon 
League,  Society  for  the  Friendless,  Playground  and 
Recreational  Association  of  America,  National  Child 
Welfare  Association,  National  Association  of 
Travelers  Aid  Society,  World  Peace  Foundation, 
American  Prison  Association,  Institute  for  Crippled 
and  Disabled  Men,  International  Reform  Bureau, 
National  Child  Welfare  Association,  National  Health 
Council,  National  Council  of  Social  Workers,  Flor- 
ence Crittenton  Missions,  Flying  Squadron  Founda- 
tion, etc.,  etc.  There  are  some  250  to  300  of  these 
helpful  institutions  springing  out  of  the  life  of  the 
church  proper,  and  they  are  nearly  all  of  a  modern 
origin. 


[121] 


UNORGANIZED  RELIGION 


"The  outer  history  of  Christendom  is  not  the  whole  history 
of  Christendom.  We  must  remember  that  through  the  ages, 
leaving  profound  consequences,  but  leaving  no  conspicuous 
records  upon  the  historian's  page,  countless  men  and  women 
were  touched  by  that  spirit  of  Jesus  which  still  lived  and 
lives  still  at  the  core  of  Christianity,  that  they  led  lives  that 
were  on  the  whole  gracious  and  helpful  and  that  they  did 
unselfish  and  devoted  deeds.  Through  the  ages,  such  lives 
cleared  the  air  and  made  a  better  world  possible." 

JET.  G.  Wells,  The  Outline  of  History, 

(p.  628). 


CHAPTER  XIV 
Unorganized  Religion 

ONE  CAN  NOT  define  nor  evaluate  Christianit}' 
by  quoting  statistics.  It  is  more  than  statis- 
tics. It  is  more  than  an  institution.  It  is  therefore 
quite  impossible  for  one  to  indicate  its  progress  by 
recounting  the  history  of  the  church  as  an  institu- 
tion, or  by  tabulating  the  names  and  work  of  the 
institutions  closely  allied  to  it.  Like  the  Nile,  the 
church  has  everywhere  overflowed  its  banks,  leaving 
a  rich  deposit,  out  of  which  spring  growths  of  many 
forms  to  grace  and  bless  the  earth.  Perhaps  it  is 
better  to  change  the  figure  and  think  of  the  institu- 
tional phase  of  Christianity  as  the  body,  whose  life 
giving  and  preserving  spirit  is,  like  a  radiant  person- 
ality, exerting  an  influence  way  beyond  the  limits  of 
the  visible  form  itself — in  love,  charity,  sympathy, 
and  in  kindly  deeds  performed  by  one  hand  while  the 
other  is  unconscious  of  what  is  going  on  or  of  the 
source  that  inspired  it. 

There  are  Christian  activities  everywhere  outside 
the  church  as  well  as  in  and  by  the  church.  There 
are  manifold  signs  that  tastes  have  been  refined  and 
conduct  greatly  modified  by  the  leavening  power  of 
the  teaching  of  Jesus  in  multitudes  of  men  whose 
names  have  never  been  enrolled  in  a  church. 

Almost  14,000,000  people  sent  requests  to  the  Con- 

[123] 


KELIGIOUS  OPTIMISM 

ference  on  Limitations  of  Armament  in  an  effort  to 
inspire  that  Conference  to  the  achievement  of  the 
largest  possible  results.  It  is  interesting  to  pick  up 
a  handful  of  papers  and  glance  over  them  to  note  the 
kindly  things,  good  deeds  and  real  Christian  services 
that  are  constantly  being  rendered. 

I  picked  up  at  random  some  papers  and  magazines 
of  different  dates  that  happened  to  lie  near  my  desk, 
and  with  fifty  or  more  other  items,  I  marked  the 
following : 

''The  subway  train  was  crowded.  I  luckily 
secured  a  seat  through  the  courtesy  of  a  working- 
man.  He  stood  in  front  of  me,  continuing  to  read 
his  paper.  He  did  not  look  any  more  tired  than  the 
usual  run  of  toilers  of  the  soil.  Two  gentlemen  stood 
alongside  him.  The  seat  in  front  of  the  second  man 
was  vacated  at  Seventy-second  street.  Both  these 
men  at  the  same  time  beckoned  to  the  working  man 
to  take  the  unoccupied  seat,  which  he  did  without 
hesitancy  and  with  a  grateful  "Thank  you." 
Strange  occurrence,  wasn't  it?  It  is  mighty  good  to 
think  that  in  the  subway  there  travel  men  with  feel- 
ing for  their  fellow-creatures,  and  I  have  always 
thought  that  it  was  an  unknown  quantity."^ 

As  history  goes,  it  was  not  so  long  ago  that  these 
two  well  dressed  men  would  have  enslaved  that 
workman.  I  recently  stood  on  the  cobble-paved 
streets  of  the  ruins  of  Pompeii — and  noted  the  ruts 
worn  by  wheels  of  vehicles  deep  into  these  hard 


^A  story  by  a  lady,  told  by   "The  Outlook,"   originally  printed 
by  the   "New  York  Sun,"  I  think. 

[124] 


UNORGANIZED  RELIGION 

stones,  also  the  large  boulders  at  the  crossings  where 
sharp  turns  must  necessarily  be  made,  and  remarked : 
''This  does  not  seem  adapted  to  horses.  How  could 
they  make  these  turns?"  I  was  informed  that  those 
ruts  were  worn  by  vehicles  drawn  by  the  hands  of 
slaves. 

Again :  "Mr.  L.  0.  Jones  of  the  White  Cross  Move  • 
ment  has  just  returned  from  Pike  County,  Kentucky, 
the  largest  county  in  the  State,  situated  in  the  foot- 
hills of  the  Cumberlands.  There  are  53,000  people 
in  Pike  County,  with  no  hospital  facilities.  Time 
after  time  patients  have  had  to  be  taken  103  miles, 
with  great  expense  and  not  infrequent  fatality. 
Some  time  ago,  a  private  corporation  started  a  hos- 
pital and  after  expending  many  thousands  were 
compelled  to  give  it  up.  The  church  steps  in,  through 
the  energy  of  its  pastor,  and  the  completion  of  the 
hospital  is  assured.  The  coal  miners  of  the  com- 
munity have  assumed  $50,000;  the  county  has 
assumed  $25,000,  and  Pikeville  has  assumed  another 
$25,000,  making  $100,000  altogether.  When  the 
hospital  is  completed  it  will  have  a  capacity  of  fifty- 
three  beds.'" 

Again:  A  certain  editor,  speaking  before  a 
Ministerial  Association  in  Chicago,  said:  ''You  can 
not  call  up  one  half  the  homes  in  Chicago  after  eight 
o'clock  and  find  anybody  at  home.  They  have  all 
gone  to  the  theater."  One  of  the  Chicago  papers 
took  up  that  speech,  and  the  next  night  at  9  :25  a 
reporter,    having   selected   twenty    names    from   the 


1  North  Western  Christian  Advocate. 

[125] 


RELIGIOUS  OPTIMISM 

telephone  book  at  random,  called  the  numbers.  In 
an  hour,  he  found  eighteen  families  at  home  and  two 
away.  The  incident  has  value  of  several  sorts,  but 
the  aspect  of  it  which  needs  to  be  considered  just 
now  is  that  the  home-keeping  folk,  who  are  the 
backbone  of  the  Nation's  everyday  life,  are  far  and 
away  in  the  maj'ority.'"'^ 

Again :  Another  reported  that  a  group  of  students 
from  fourteen  states  and  thirty-five  colleges  have 
organized  *'The  Student  Fellowship  for  Christian 
Life  Service,  to  emphasize  the  sense  of  fellowship 
among  students  who  wish  to  share  in  the  common 
purpose  of  making  America  Christian  for  our  own 
sake  and  the  sake  of  the  World." 

Again :  ' '  The  Rotary  Clubs  all  over  North  America, 
numbering  85,000  live-wire  business  men  are  en- 
gaged in  a  Nation-wide  campaign  to  give  every 
crippled  boy  and  girl  in  this  Country  a  new  chance. 
It  is  estimated  that  over  300,000  crippled  children 
will  be  helped  this  way  without  cost  to  the  child. 
In  order  to  carry  this  forward,  the  Rotarians  have 
formed  the  International  Society  for  Crippled 
Children.  .  .  .  Arrangement  are  being  made  to  open 
a  permanent  international  headquarters  in  either 
Chicago  or  New  York."* 

Again:  "American  delegates  who  attended  the 
meeting  of  the  International  Committee  of  the  World 
Alliance  for  International  Friendship,  held  from 
August    5-11,    were    favorably    impressed    by    the 


1  The  Northwestern  Christian  Advocate. 

2  From  "The  Epworth  Herald." 

[126] 


UNORGANIZED  RELIGION 

friendly  spirit  that  prevailed  throughout  the  con- 
ferences of  representatives  from  twenty-five  differ- 
ent countries.  Germans,  Austrians,  French  and 
English  discussed  the  problems  of  world  peace  and 
disarmament  without  a  trace  of  the  rancor  in  evi- 
dence at  the  international  gatherings  held  at  Genoa 
and  The  Hague.  Nearly  two  hundred  delegates  were 
present. 

''The  benevolent  work  of  fraternal  orders  is  much 
better  advertised  than  is  that  of  the  Protestant 
churches  .  .  .  The  Protestant  churches  are  supporting 
more  children,  however,  than  all  the  fraternal  orders, 
twenty  thousand  being  maintained  in  this  way."^ 

''Another  gave  an  account  of  Mr.  Ford's  $5,000,000 
hospital.  It  should  be  remembered  that  all  state  or 
publicly  supported  Charities  have  grown  out  of  a 
religious  feeling  and  never  was  there  a  time  when  the 
public  took  better  care  of  the  deaf,  dumb  and  blind, 
maimed,  feeble-minded,  and  orphans.  Indeed,  some 
maintain  that  we,  under  our  Christian  civilization, 
are  pushing  philanthropy  so  far  as  to  endanger  our 
modern  civilization."^ 

After  what  war  in  all  history  was  such  effort  put 
forth  to  take  care  of  the  injured  soldier?  The  Fed- 
eral Board  of  Vocational  Education  was  created  by 
Act  of  Congress,  1917,  making  possible  appropria- 
tions to  be  used  in  the  promotion  of  vocational  educa- 
tion. For  the  year  1918-19,  $1,860,000  was 
appropriated,  but  the  appropriation  increases  each 


1  The  Christian  Century. 

3  Mr.   Stoddard's  Revolt  Against  Civilization. 

[127] 


RELIGIOUS  OPTIMISM 

year  until  in  1925-26,  it  reaches  $7,367,000,  which 
amount  is  to  be  provided  annually  thereafter.  By 
the  passage  of  the  Federal  Vocational  rehabilitation 
act,  1918,  and  an  amendment  thereto,  1919,  the  board 
was  charged  with  the  duty  of  furnishing  vocational 
rehabilitation  to  every  member  of  the  military  or 
naval  forces  of  the  United  States  discharged  with  a 
disability  incurred,  increased  or  aggravated  while  a 
member  of  such  forces  or  traceable  to  such  service. 
The  board  carried  out  this  work  until  the  passage  of 
the  bill,  1921,  creating  the  Veterans'  Bureau,  which 
consolidated  all  the  agencies  dealing  with  the  dis- 
abled soldiers,  sailors  and  marines. 

"Wickedness  is  noisy;  it  gets  itself  recognized  as 
news.  Goodness  is  quiet  and  orderly,  but  it  so 
largely  predominates  that  it  is  regarded  as  the  regu- 
lar, normal  ongoing  of  modem  life.  The  m-other 
devotedly  caring  for  the  home,  the  father  indus- 
triously providing  food,  clothing  and  shelter  for  the 
family,  the  trusted  business  man  unostentatiously 
serving  his  community  through  honest  and  efficient 
business  methods ;  the  professional  man,  —  the  lawyer, 
doctor,  teacher,  content  to  serve — ''dreading  praise 
not  blame;''  the  laborer  industriously  providing  the 
raw  material  and  shaping  it  into  use;  the  unbroken 
friendships,  the  helpful  deeds,  kind  words  and  the 
innumerable  courtesies  and  pleasantries  that  keep 
life  moving  smoothly  and  joyously — who  thinks  of 
giving  these  substantial  virtues  headlines  in  a  news- 
papers? Why?  Because  it  is  taken  for  granted. 
This  is  the  usual  way  of  living.  It  is  the  unusual, 
the  exceptional  that  becomes  news. 

[128] 


UNORGANIZED  RELIGION 

We  talk  about  the  Great  War,  but  the  really  great 
wars  and  the  significant  victories,  are  the  wars  against, 
and  victories  over,  epidemics,  typhoid,  hookworm, 
rheumatism,  small-pox,  diphtheria,  yellow  fever,  in- 
fant mortality,  and  they  are  nearly  all  inspired  by 
a  kindlier  attitude  toward  humanity,  born  of  the 
Christian  Spirit.  Already  victories  in  these  wars 
have  extended  the  average  length  of  life  some  five  or 
six  years,  and  removed  untold  suffering  from  the 
human  family.  ''In  Havana  the  death  rate  after 
American  occupation  fell  from  fifty  to  twenty.  The 
yellow  fever  in  the  United  States  has  practically  dis- 
appeared. Small-pox,  typhoid  and  diphtheria  are 
practically  mastered.  At  present,  in  Massachusetts, 
life  is  lengthening  about  fourteen  years  per  century; 
in  Europe  about  seventeen;  in  India,  where  medical 
progress  is  practically  unknown,  it  remains 
stationary."^ 

It  is  a  privilege  to  have  lived  in  an  age  that  has 
witnessed  in  our  country  the  passing  of  human 
slavery,  an  institution  that  has  trailed  more  human 
woe  and  misery  in  its  wake  than  any  other  evil 
known  to  history;  of  the  American  saloon,  next  to 
slavery,  humanity's  greatest  curse;  the  public  lot- 
tery ;  the  enfranchisement  of  women  not  only  in  our 
country  but  in  at  least  twenty-five  nations  and  prov- 
inces of  the  Christian  world;  and  the  marching  of 
30,000,000  brave  men  into  battle,  6,000,000  giving 
their  lives  to  prove  that  right,  not  might,  shall  rule 
in  the  affairs  of  men ;  the  formation  of  the  League  of 


1  Charles  Edward  Lock  "Daybreak  Everywhere"  p.  88. 
[129] 


RELIGIOUS  OPTIMISM 

Nations,  with  its  International  Court  of  Justice ;  the 
rapid  growth  of  international  law;  and  the  meeting 
and  work  of  the  Conference  on  Limitation  of  Arma- 
ment. For  one  to  have  witnessed  all  this,  well 
might  he,  like  Simeon  of  old  say,  "Lord  now  lettest 
thou  thy  servant  depart  in  peace,  for  mine  eyes  have 
seen  thy  salvation." 

But  the  Christian  religion  is  more  than  a  destruc- 
tive force.  It  does  more  than  overthrow  evil.  The 
glory  of  Christianity  is  its  constructive  work.  How- 
ever important  the  forgiveness  of  sin  may  be,  and 
it  is  very  important,  this  was  not,  nor  is  not 
Christ's  chief  work.  Christ  was  a  carpenter.  His 
chief  work  was  that  of  the  builder — builder  of  men, 
builder  of  greater  institutions,  the  builder  of  new 
and  higher  civilization,  the  builder  of  a  better  and 
happier  humanity.  Christ  is  the  Master  Builder  of 
the  ages,  and  the  evidences  of  this  constructive  influ- 
ence of  Christianity,  as  has  been  shown  in  other 
parts  of  this  volume,  was  never  so  accumulative  as 
today. 

The  church  by  no  means  embodies  all  the  Chris- 
tianity in  the  world.  There  are  literally  thousands 
of  persons  who  really  act  according  to  the  Biblical 
revelation,  its  standards  and  ideals,  who  never 
technically  unite  with  a  church.  **In  every  age 
were  simple  men  and  women,  not  known  perhaps  to 
history,  or  even  to  those  of  their  own  time,  whose 
souls  and  lives  were  filled  with  the  principles  of  this 
new  faith.  These  gradually  affected  social  habits  and 
practices;  sometimes  changing  them  before  they  in- 

[130] 


UNORGANIZED  RELIGION 

fluenced  legislation,  sometimes,  by  a  favoring  public 
accident,  being  able  first  to  reform  laws  and  public 
officials;  thus  day  by  day,  by  imperceptible  steps 
purifying  church,  states  and  people;  gradually  caus- 
ing certain  great  abuses  and  wrongs  to  melt  away 
before  the  fervency  of  their  spirit,  and  the  innocence 
and  beneficence  of  their  lives.  Though  for  the 
most  part  unknown  perhaps  to  ecclesiastical  records, 
or  the  historian  of  empires,  they  have  illustrated  and 
transmitted  the  divine  truths  which  they  received 
from  Him.  In  lives  of  purity  and  human  brother- 
hood, in  honesty,  faithfulness,  compassion  and  true 
humanity,  they  have  sought  to  follow  their  Great 
Leader.  While  living  for  Him,  they  have  lived  for 
the  human  race.  Their  spirit  and  their  sacrifice  have 
made  it  possible  that  ages  hence  some  of  the  great 
evils  of  mankind  should  come  to  an  end,  that  some 
tears  should  forever  be  wiped  away,  and  a  fair  pros- 
pect be  held  forth  of  a  distant  future  of  humanity, 
justice  and  righteousness."^ 

It  is  this  overflow,  this  unseen  current,  this  in- 
working  leaven,  this  fine  spirit  of  helpfulness,  this 
unorganized  Christianity,  that  so  many  fail  to  recog- 
nize when  they  complain  of  the  modern  influence  of 
the  Christian  religion,  and  the  work  of  the  Christian 
Church.  Criticism  is  usually  made  against  the  insti- 
tutional phase  of  Christianity,  but  one  wonders  how 
long  this  rich  overflow  would  continue  without  the 
institutional  church — that  provides  ministers,  schools, 
colleges,  a  Christian  literature,  book  concerns  for 


^  "Gesta  Christi"   by  C.  L.  Brace,  p.  3. 
['31] 


EELIGIOUS  OPTIMISM 

the  distribution  of  good  literature,  church  papers  for 
young  and  old,  and  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel  of 
Christ  to  millions  who  are  influenced  but  never  en- 
roll as  Church  members.  The  spirit  would  not  live 
long  without  the  body.  It  would  be  difficult,  yea, 
impossible,  to  maintain  the  Christian  virtues  without 
some  agency,  some  organization  to  advocate  and 
propagate  them.  It  is  a  mistake  of  course,  to  make 
organization  an  end  in  itself  as  was  the  tendency  of 
the  Christian  Church  in  certain  periods  of  its  history, 
but  it  is  a  far  greater  mistake  to  suppose  that  the 
religious  life  could  be  maintained  without  organiza- 
tion. However  imperfectly  the  Christian  Church 
has  performed  its  task,  it  is  conceded  to  be  the  most 
remarkable  institution  known  to  man.  ''Here  is  an 
institution  devoted  avowedly  to  social  idealism,  to 
the  remaking  of  human  character  and  of  human 
institutions  themselves  in  conformity  with  the  divine 
ideal.  Whatever  the  faults  of  the  church,  surely  no 
other  human  institution  bears  such  witnesses,  to  the 
idealistic  aspirations  of  mankind.  It  is  not  accident, 
therefore  that  many  of  the  noblest,  most  aspiring, 
most  unselfish  spirits  of  our  race  have  found  their 
work  in  building  up  this  institution."^ 


1  Charles  A.  Ellwood,  the  Reconstruction  of  Religion,  p.  285. 


[132] 


BIBLICAL  LEARNING 


"Freedom  is  recreated  year  by  year 
In  hearts  wide  open  on  the  Godward  side, 

In  souls  ealm-cadeneed  as  the  whirling  sphere, 
In  minds  that  sway  the  future  like  a  tide; 

No  broadest  creeds  can  hold  her,  and  no  codes ; 
She  chooses  men  for  her  august  abodes. 

Building  them  fair  and  fronting  to  the  dawn." 

Lowell. 

The  aim  of  real  science,  as  well  as  true  religion,  is  to 
know  the  truth  confident  that  even  unwelcome  truth  is 
better  than  cherished  error,  that  the  welfare  of  the  human 
race  depends  upon  the  extension  and  diffusion  of  knowledge 
among  men,  and  that  the  truth  alone  can  make  us  free. 
Conklin,  —  The  Direction  of  Human  Evolution. 

Thus  it  appears  that  Biblical  Criticism  is  simply  one  of 
the  sisterhood  of  modern  science;  and  surely  when  we  under- 
stand her  true  mission,  we  shall  feel  that  her  presence  is 
benign  and  shall  rejoice  to  do  her  grateful  and  loving 
homage. 

Willard  Chamberlain  Selleck, 
^^New  Appreciation  of  the  Bible." 


CHAPTER  XV 
Biblical  Learning 

IT  IS  not  assumed  that  all  readers  will  agree  with 
the  positions  set  forth  in  this  and  in  the  following 
chapters.  Our  only  effort  in  this  chapter  will  be  to 
call  attention  to  certain  changes  and  tendencies  in 
our  attitude  toward  the  Bible  which  seem  to  indicate 
hope  for  the  future.  Neither  is  there  in  this  dis- 
cussion any  disposition  to  find  fault  with  the  con- 
servative element  in  the  church  of  today.  We  are 
making  no  defense  of  radicalism,  no  plea  for  a  new 
Bible  or  a  new  religion.  There  has  always  been  in  the 
church  both  a  conservative  and  progressive  element. 
This  is  as  it  should  be.  Often  there  are  also  two 
extreme  wings  —  radical  reactionaries  and  radical 
liberals.  One  hope  of  the  future  lies  in  the  fact  that 
neither  'of  these  radical  wings  has  won.  The  church 
is  not  safe  without  a  wise,  substantial,  deeply  spiritual, 
conservative  element.  This  element  has  always  proved 
a  check  against  extreme  liberalism  on  the  one  hand 
and  cold  rationalism  on  the  other.  It  is  only  reac- 
tionary conservatism,  that  form  that  blocks  the  wheels 
of  religious  progress,  against  which  we  would  care  to 
lift  a  word  of  warning.  Conservatism  too  often  per- 
mits an  over  development  of  the  defects  of  its  own 
virtues  —  a  mere  clinging  to  the  existing  order  of 
things   with  no   effort  to   discriminate  between  the 

[135] 


RELIGIOUS  OPTIMISM 

worth-while  and  the  outworn;  an  aversion  to  change 
simply  because  it  is  change.  It  thus  becomes  a  clog 
on  the  wheels  of  legitimate  progress  and  prevents 
needed  reforms  and  unconsciously  perpetuates  real 
evils.  This  phase  of  conservatism  is  pure  bourbonism 
and  accounts  for  much  of  the  lack  of  progress,  where 
we  would  naturally  expect  the  church  to  go  forward 
with  an  ever  accelerated  movement.  To  combat  posi- 
tive evil  is  not  the  only  task  of  the  church,  but  it  is 
often  put  under  the  necessity  of  carrying  a  dead 
weight  of  well  meaning  but  mistaken  conservatism. 

In  reality  it  is  the  ultra  conservatives  who  are  our 
most  confirmed  and  shall  we  say,  our  most  dangerous 
skeptics,  and  they  are  none  the  less  dangerous  because 
their  doubt  is  unconscious  or  at  least  unacknowledged. 
"To  refuse  to  submit  religious  institutions  and  con- 
victions to  the  pitiless  scrutiny  and  exacting  estimate 
which  everything  else  in  the  modern  world  is  under- 
going, appears  to  arise  from  fears  as  to  the  results  of 
such  a  trial  a  lurking  doubt  as  to  whether  the  church 
could  meet  the  test  that  all  other  institutions  are  fac- 
ing. Such  an  attitude,  far  from  revealing  loyalty 
and  faith,  indicates  the  timidity  and  distrust  which 
can  maintain  its  convictions  only  by  throwing  about 
them  an  artificial  protection.  It  is  the  unconscious 
skeptics  who  claim  the  special  privileges  of  pious  ac- 
quiescence for  their  beliefs;  they  must  keep  them 
unchallenged,  wrapped  in  layers  of  devout  obscurant- 
ism and  vague  sentiment,  lest,  if  the  outward  sign  of 
the  spiritual  life  be  altered,  the  inward  grace  itself 
should  perish  from  the  earth. 


BIBLICAL  LEARNING 

''Institutional  religion  is  shot  through  and  through 
with  this  subtle  and  corrosive  skepticism  which  mas- 
querades under  the  name  of  faith  and  orthodoxy.  If 
the  Church  perishes,  it  will  be  this  type  of  'faith',  the 
sort  of  sinner  who  holds  it,  that  will  be  chiefly  respon- 
sible."^ The  church  is  rapidly  breaking  from  this 
over  caution,  this  artificial  protection  of  the  Bible, 
Reverent,  though  rigid  criticism,  has  the  right  of  way. 
It  is  not  the  results  of  modern  Biblical  criticism  we 
wish  to  consider  here,  but  its  spirit  —  certain  new 
tendencies,  emphases  and  methods. 

Says  McFadyen,  "It  can  not  be  too  strongly  em- 
phasized that  criticism  does  not  stand  for  a  definite 
set  of  results.  It  stands  for  a  method,  an  attitude, 
a  temper  which  patiently  collects  and  impartially 
examines  all  available  facts  and  allows  them  to  make 
their  own  impression  upon  the  mind  of  the  investi- 
gator. Perhaps  the  danger  of  the  present  time  is  not 
that  of  a  critical  study  of  our  Bible,  so  much  as  that 
of  standing  still,  not  that  of  the  progressive  who 
quickens  a  new  interest  in  the  Bible,  as  that  of  the 
ultra-conservative  who  perhaps  silences  a  scientific 
study  of  the  Bible.  Biblical  Criticism  is  simply  a 
free  and  reverent  study  of  all  Biblical  facts.  "^  This 
freedom  in  the  realm  of  Biblical  research  was  not  so 
cheerfully  granted  a  generation  ago,  but  we  have 
come  to  see  that  Christianity  could  not  long  continue 
to  advance,  encumbered  with  a  dogmatic  insistance 
upon  old  and  outworn  Biblical  interpretations  for 
no  higher  reason  than  that  they  are  old;  or  with  a 


1  Fitch — "Can  the  Church  Survive  the  Changing  Order" — p.  77. 
See   "Old  Testament  Criticism  and  the  Christian  Church"  pages 
25,   30,   47. 


KELIGIOUS  OPTIMISM 

tenacious  clinging  to  traditional  views,  merely  because 
they  are  traditional.  Neither  could  it  long  continue 
to  progress  under  a  mistrust  of  scholarship  and  with 
its  eyes  closed  to  the  flood  of  new  light  that  has  been 
pouring  in  upon  us  from  every  source  during  these 
modern  times.  This  attitude  was  one  of  the  real 
dangers  in  the  past,  a  danger  that  is  now  happily 
disappearing. 

It  is  readily  granted  that  there  were  forms  of 
Biblical  criticism  in  Germany  and  elsewhere  that  gave 
the  Church  real  concern.  Its  influence  was  destruc- 
tive, and  no  doubt  it  was  designed  to  be.  It  was  right 
that  the  church  should  combat  such  influences.  There 
are  many  reasons  why  this  criticism  as  developed  in 
Germany  during  the  nineteenth  century  could  not  be 
regarded  as  the  final  conclusion  of  scholarship. "^  It  was 
wanting  in  the  constructive  element ;  its  importance 
was  so  exaggerated  that  it  developed  into  a  form  of 
scholasticism;  much  of  it  was  irrelevant  to  the  real 
issues  at  stake.  Many  of  the  sciences  upon  which  the 
conclusions  of  these  critics  were  based  were  not  then 
sufficiently  developed  to  render  the  work  of  sjnithetic 
scholarship  of  that  age  trustworthy.  Modern  scholars 
are  now  going  over  the  work  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury in  a  more  reverent  and  thorough  manner,  and 
with  far  better  tools  to  work  with.  ''The  desideratum 
for  just  thinking  and  conviction  is  that  we  should 
have  both  the  steadfast  and  open  mind.  'Prove  (or 
try)  all  things'  —  that  is  the  open  mind.  'Hold  fast 
that  which  is  good '  —  that  is  the  steadfast  mind. 


n2 


1  See  Sandaj,   "Inspiration"  pp.  117  to  119,  also  Ellwood,   "The 
Reconstruction  o'f  Religion"  p.  154. 

2  Rev.  R.  C.  Gillie,     Constructive  Cliristianity. 


['38] 


BIBLICAL  LEARNING 

*'We  define  criticism"  says  Henry  S.  Nash  ''as  that 
mental  process  in  modern  Christianity  whereby  the 
historic  character,  the  true  nature  of  divine  revelation 
is  appreciated  and  manifested.  The  historic  spirit, 
the  desire  to  know  the  whole  past  even  as  it  was  in 
itself,  comes  in  as  a  noble  servant  raised  up  by  God 
to  help  the  church  to  truly  know  her  Bible,  and  thus 
pay  her  debt  to  the  Author  of  the  Sacred  Page. 
Christianity  stands  or  falls  with  the  Bible.  For  we 
believe  our  Scriptures  to  be  the  book  of  witness  to 
the  true  quality  of  the  ultimate  religious  experience, 
and  to  the  character  and  being  of  God  as  revealed 
through  that  experience,  the  authentic  record  of  the 
blessed  promise  and  the  saving  presence  of  the  perfect 
life  on  earth.  The  well-being  of  the  church  depends 
upon  the  right  interpretation  of  the  Bible.  We  must 
seek  to  know  it  from  within  and  along  the  lines  of  its 
own  meaning  and  purpose,  that  this  is  our  most 
sacred  obligation."^  Honest,  conscientious,  scientific 
and  historic  criticism  of  this  sort  has  won  the  day. 
The  helpfulness  of  its  work  is  conceded.  It  has  al- 
ready rendered  a  real  service  to  Christianity,  and 
given  us  a  considerable  body  of  results  that  will  no 
doubt  prove  of  permanent  value. 

This  new  method  and  spirit,  also  much  of  its  results, 
have  been  accepted  during  the  last  thirty  or  forty  years 
by  practically  every  author  of  note  in  all  Protestant 
bodies.  During  this  period  there  has  been  produced 
scarcely  a  single  accredited  commentary.  Biblical  dic- 
tionary, or  religious  text  book  which  does  not  assume 


^  "The  History  of  the  Higher  Criticism  of  the  New  Testament- 
p.  14-15. 


[139] 


RELIGIOUS  OPTIMISM 

this  newer  attitude/  Writers  like  the  late  Washington 
Gladden,  Lyman  Abbot,  the  late  Borden  P.  Bowne, 
the  late  John  Fiske,  Charles  E.  Jefferson,  Charles 
Foster  Kent,  and  literally  scores  of  others  who  were 
in  sympathy  with  movement  embodied  its  best  spirit 
in  popular  religious  magazines  and  books  until  at 
present  large  numbers  in  the  Christian  Church  are 
more  or  less  familiar  with  it.  It  now  finds  expression 
in  our  Sunday  School  helps  and  literature  designed 
for  the  use  of  young  people,  in  our  denominational 
papers  prepared  for  family  reading,  and  in  much  if 
not  most  of  our  best  modern  preaching.  In  short 
what  is  called  the  New  Biblical  Learning  is  now  quite 
well  understood  by  many  in  our  pews.  Understanding 
it,  they  no  longer  dread  or  fear  it.  Whatever  danger 
seemed  to  accompany  this  movement  in  the  early 
stages,  whatever  crisis  it  seemed  to  create,  has  now 
virtually  passed.  Its  better  method,  its  open- 
mindedness,  its  kindly,  progressive  and  reverent 
temper,  its  emphasis  upon  the  spirit  rather  than  upon 
the  letter  promise  better  things  for  the  near  future. 

There  are  still  those,  of  course,  who  would  advocate 
the  old  order.  But  their  voice  is  not  dominant.  Most 
church  people  now  realize  that  it  was  not  the  Bible 
that  was  endangered,  but  simply  certain  concepts 
about  the  Bible.  It  is  very  easy  for  devout,  well 
meaning  people  to  fall  into  the  delusion  —  and  the  love 
for  and  devotion  to  the  Bible  often  strengthen  this 


1  "It  is  impossible  to  resist  the  impresson  that  the  critical 
argument  is  in  the  stronger  hands,  and  that  it  is  accompanied  by  a 
far  greater  command  of  the  materials.  The  cause  of  criticism  is, 
it  is  difficult  to  doubt,  the  winning  cause."  Sanday — "Inspiration" 
p.   116. 

[140] 


BIBLICAL  LEARNING 

delusion  —  of  substituting  traditional  views  about  the 
Bible  for  the  Bible  itself.  Anything,  therefore,  con- 
trary to  their  interpretation  even  though  that  inter- 
pretation rested  chiefly  on  tradition,  or  even  though 
they  were  unaware  of  what  it  did  rest  upon,  seems  to 
them  to  overthrow  the  Book  itself. 

Our  conceptions,  our  theories,  our  systems  in  regard 
to  truth  and  reality  —  if  human  knowledge  is  advanc- 
ing—  necessarily  change.  But  reality  is  permanent. 
The  science  of  biology  —  of  life  —  is  new,  but  life  is 
old.  Geology,  the  science  about  the  earth,  changes, 
but  the  earth  with  its  rocks  and  mountains  is  per- 
manent. Our  theories  about  light  —  the  adaptations 
and  uses  of  it  —  change  with  advancing  ages,  but  the 
sun  continues  to  shine  with  an  unbroken  light.  Our 
theories  and  interpretations  of  the  Bible  change,  but 
the  Bible  itself  —  its  spirit,  truth,  and  influence  — 
these  remain  the  permanent  possession  of  mankind 
and  no  artificial  support  will  increase  their  value. 

We  have  come  to  see  with  Fairbairn  that ' '  Criticism 
is  but  a  name  for  scientific  scholarship  scientifically 
used.  Grant  such  scholarship  legitimate,  and  the 
legitimacy  of  its  use  to  all  fit  subjects  must  also  be 
granted.  Nobody  denies,  nobody  even  doubts,  the  legit- 
imacy of  its  application  to  classical  and  ethical  liter- 
ature, the  necessity  or  excellency  of  the  work  it  has 
done,  or  where  the  material  allowed  it,  the  accuracy  of 
the  work  achieved  —  now  the  Scriptures  either  are 
or  are  not  fit  subjects  for  scholarship.  If  they  are 
not,  then  all  sacred  scholarship  has  been  and  still  is 
a  mistake,  and  they  are  in  a  body  of  literature  pos- 

[141] 


EELIGIOUS  OPTIMISM 

sessed  of  the  inglorious  distinction  of  being  incapable 
of  being  understood. ' '  Our  newer  and  better  attitude 
does  not  break  with  scholarship.  It  only  asks  that 
scholarship  shall  be  reverent,  sufficiently  in  sympathy 
with  and  appreciative  of  the  purpose  of  this  Book  of 
Books  to  enable  it  to  reach  fair  and  unbiased  conclu- 
sion. Irreverent  scholarship  can  not  understand  the 
Bible  much  less  give  an  unbiased  interpretation  of  it. 
The  Bible  must  be  spiritually,  as  well  as  intellectually, 
discerned. 

''The  new  Biblical  learning  has  simply  committed 
itself,  reverently  and  fearlessly,  to  the  guidance  of 
the  spirit  in  the  use  of  the  instruments  of  modem 
scholarship  in  its  search  for  truth.  It  prefers  the 
religion  of  the  spirit  to  the  religion  of  authority.  It 
maintains  the  liberty  of  the  spirit  as  against  the 
bondage  of  the  letter.  It  follows  the  spirit  of  truth 
even  to  the  defiance  of  tradition.  .  .  .It  claims  for  the 
twentieth  century  the  freedom  of  the  Reformation, 
and  it  prophesies  for  the  twentieth  century  the  illu- 
mination of  a  new  Pentecost.  Its  emphasis  upon  the 
essential  elements  of  the  faith  is  far  more  command- 
ing than  the  former  hangings  of  the  whole  faith  upon 
things  indifferent.  S-o  implicit  faith  in  truth  and  the 
incessant  search  for  truth  are  far  more  promising  than 
any  passive  contentment  with  possible  error.  Its  abso- 
lute surrender  to  the  spirit's  guidance  will  mean  more 
rapid  progress  in  Biblical  knowledge  in  the  coming 
century  than  even  the  last  century  has  seen."^  This 
sort  of  criticism  has  not  only  immensely  enriched  the 


1  Doremus  Almy  Hayes.     "The  New  Age  and  its  Creed." — p.  37. 

[142] 


BIBLICAL  LEARNING 

Bible,  it  has  given  the  church  a  new  confidence  in 
the  Bible.  She  has  come  to  see  that  it  can  stand  criti- 
cism ;  that  the  Bible  does  not  so  much  need  defending, 
as  it  needs  to  be  given  a  chance ;  that  it  simply  needs 
to  be  approached  in  a  frank,  open,  reverent  state  of 
mind,  and  that  the  message  it  speaks  to  such  minds 
needs  to  be  followed,  needs  to  be  fearlessly  lived. 

Modern  Biblical  learning  has  not  only  emancipated 
us  as  from  the  bondage  of  the  letter  and  committed  us 
to  the  guidance  of  the  spirit  —  it  has  set  forth  in  bold 
relief  the  one  great  figure  —  the  life  and  personality 
of  Christ.  It  regards  scriptural  passages  important 
largely  in  the  measure  that  they  relate  to  Him  and 
reveal  Him.  The  Bible  is  a  portrait  —  Biblical  learn- 
ing is  causing  the  face  of  Christ  to  shine  brighter 
and  brighter  with  each  passing  age  —  tender,  pure, 
divine,  appealing  and  inspiring.  It  is  enabling  us 
more  and  more  to  see  the  world's  Savior  face  to  face. 
It  is  not  a  call  ' '  Back  to  Christ, ' '  but  it  is  leading  us 
onward  and  upward  to  a  more  thorough  appreciation 
of  Him,  his  spirit,  his  teaching,  his  method  of  working 
with  and  of  saving  men. 

This  emancipation  from  the  bondage  of  the  letter, 
this  reliance  upon  the  spirit,  this  larger  freedom  of 
personal  judgment,  this  forward  instead  of  the  back- 
ward look,  this  reverent  openmindedness,  this  larger 
emphasis  upon  the  teaching,  the  life,  the  personality 
of  Christ  —  all  point  in  the  right  direction.  A  door 
has  been  opened  to  freedom  and  investigation  of 
thought.  A  friendship  with  reverent  scholarship  has 
been  formed  that  promises  to  be  lasting,  and  unem- 
barassed  progress  is  the  promise  of  the  future. 


MODERN  THEOLOGY 


^'The  old  order  changeth,  yielding  place  to  new 
And  God  fulfills  himself  in  many  ways." 

"Let  knowledge  grow  from  more  to  more 
But  more  of  reverence  in  us  dwell ; 
That  mind  and  soul  according  well, 
May  make  one  music  as  before 
But  vaster." 

"The  present  day  theology,  then,  is  simply  the  explana- 
tion which  men  are  giving  of  religious  truth  in  the  light  of 
this  century.  Increasing  knowledge  of  the  world,  and  of 
ourselves  and  of  the  Bible  call  for  new  explanation  of 
the  facts  of  religion.  New  light  is  always  breaking  forth; 
we  see  these  great  themes  in  the  new  light  and  discover  that 
our  former  theories  of  them  need  to  be  reshaped.  This  has 
been  true  in  all  the  ages  of  the  world,  and  it  will  always 
be  true.  God  is  always  making  all  things  new  in  the  order 
of  nature,  and  therefore,  in  the  world  of  theory,  old  things 
are  passing  away  and  all  things  are  becoming  new." 

—  Washington  Gladden^ 
Present  Day  Theology,  p.  8. 


CHAPTER  XVI 
Modern  Theology 

NO  EFFORT  will  here  be  made  to  pass  critical 
judgment  on  modern  theology.  We  desire  only 
to  call  attention  to  a  certain  freedom  and  trend  in 
present  day  religious  thought,  and  certain  changes, 
and  new  emphases  in  regard  to  religious  life  and 
character  that  to  us  seem  to  indicate  hope  for  the 
future. 

Just  as  it  was  necessary  to  liberate  Biblical  study 
from  the  bondage  of  the  letter,  it  was  necessary  that 
theology  should  be  emancipated  from  the  bondage  of 
dogmatism,  superstition,  and  bigotry;  that,  if  rever- 
ent, theologians  should  be  free  to  think  and  to  declare 
their  conclusions.  Christianity  could  not  go  forward 
with  a  non-progressive,  moribund  theology. 

Here  again  it  is  not  so  much  the  body  of  formulated 
results,  but  the  spirit,  method,  and  emphasis  that  are 
fraught  with  promise.  In  regard  to  the  newer  theo- 
logy, little  more  than  the  critical  work  has  been  done. 
Old  systems  have  been  opened  and  critically  reviewed 
and  at  least  a  door  has  been  left  open  for  the  admit- 
tance of  new  light.  Constructive  work  has  not  ad- 
vanced far.  A  better  method  has  been  adopted,  some 
material  gathered,  and  the  work  on  the  new  volume 
has  started  in  the  right  spirit.  Little  more  than  the 
introduction,  however,  has  been  written.     A  general 

[145] 


RELIGIOUS  OPTIMISM 

survey  of  the  field  to  be  covered  lias  been  made  and 
certain  chapters  suggested.  Furthermore,  the  work 
can  now  proceed  with  far  less  annoyance  and  opposi- 
tion than  would  have  beset  such  an  undertaking  a 
generation  ago.  It  is  not  designed  that  this  new 
volume  shall  ever  be  completed,  thus  leaving  it  pos- 
sible to  add  new  chapters  from  age  to  age  as  the  race 
advances  in  the  knowledge  of  truth. 

The  new  theology  up  t-o  date,  therefore,  is  but  "A 
movement,  not  a  system;  an  atmosphere,  not  a  creed; 
a  method,  not  an  attainment;  an  emphasis,  not  a 
dogma;  a  tendency  or  rather  a  group  of  tendencies; 
a  phenomenon,  or  rather  a  series  of  phenomena ;  it  is 
a  spirit,  an  accent,  an  intonation,  a  view  point,  a 
vision,  and  not  any  thing  that  can  be  measured  or 
statistically  defined."^  Yet  it  is  just  in  this  new 
spirit,  method  and  vision  that  we  see  larger  hope  for 
the  future. 

The  old  theology  was  too  dogmatic.  She  knew  too 
much,  especially  outside  her  own  realm,  and  knew  it 
too  certainly.  She  not  only  knew  the  year  of  creation, 
but  the  time  of  year,  the  day  and  the  time  of  day. 
'  Her  foible  has  been  omniscience. '  She  seemed  to  feel 
that  her  own  work  was  complete,  and  assumed  to 
dictate  the  method  and  material  for  other  sciences,  or 
at  least  to  sit  in  judgment  on  their  findings.  Boastful 
of  possessing  the  truth  once  for  all  delivered  to  the 
saints,  she  was  impatient  with  new  facts,  intolerant 
of  new  views,  distrustful  of  new  truth,  suspicious  of 


1  Charles    Edward   Jefferson — "The    New    Age    and    Its    Creed, 
p.  96. 

[146] 


MODERN  THEOLOGY 

scholarship  in  other  realms  than  her  own.  She  would 
have  been  entirely  content  merely  to  have  preserved 
inviolate  the  system  of  the  fathers,  rather  than  to 
have  been  put  to  the  pains  of  making  progress  be- 
yond that  of  the  fathers. 

But  theology  in  these  modern  times  has  become 
less  afraid  of  new  facts,  and  more  friendly  to  the 
scientific  spirit.  Theology  is  the  science  of  religion. 
She  has  been  regarded  as  the  queen  of  sciences. 
Science  necessarily  changes  with  the  progress  of  know- 
ledge. There  may,  therefore,  be  a  new  theology  with- 
out a  new  religion,  and  without  breaking  from  the 
truth  and  reality  found  in  the  Bible.  God,  Christ,  the 
nature  of  sin,  the  necessity  of  repentance,  divine  grace, 
the  fact  of  regeneration,  and  the  reality  of  God's 
love  —  all  these  stand  from  generation  to  generation. 
''There  is  as  little  danger  of  undermining  religion 
by  a  new  theology  "as  there  is  of  blotting  out  the  stars 
by  a  new  Astronomy."^  If  theology  is  in  reality  a 
science,  she  must  be  subject  to  change,  she  must  be- 
come friendly  to  new  facts  and  new  truth. 

We  have  come  to  see  that  religion  as  well  as  science 
needs  something  of  the  empirical  spirit.  It  would 
be  strange,  indeed,  if  in  every  study  but  one,  we  are 
compelled  to  observe  facts  and  follow  the  inductive 
method,  but  in  the  study  of  religion  we  should  be 
content  to  listen  only  to  the  voice  of  the  past,  and  to 
shut  our  eyes  to  new  light.  This  method  belongs 
distinctly  to  a  past  age.  He  who  insists  on  following 
it  "  is  a  belated  straggler,  who  in  reality  belongs  to  the 


1  Lyman  Abbots — "Theology  of  an  Evolutionist."   p.   3. 

[147] 


KELIGIOUS  OPTIMISM 

twelfth  century,  but  who  in  some  mysterious  way, 
has  slipped  into  the  company  of  modern  thinkers,  not 
understanding  where  he  is."^ 

This  unyielding,  dogmatic  temper  of  the  older 
theology,  relying  chiefly  on  authority,  came  well  nigh 
alienating  the  intellectual  and  educated  classes  from 
the  church.  Lovers  of  knowledge,  the  intellectually 
alert  were  not  only  eager,  they  were  determined  to 
know  what  was  going  on  in  the  realm  of  scholarship. 
Many  in  the  church  on  the  other  hand  seemed  to  as- 
sume that  ignorance  of  what  was  going  on  among 
scholars,  among  the  thinkers  of  the  world,  was  the 
only  safe  course  for  the  church  to  follow.  The  old 
saying  that  *  ignorance  is  the  mother  of  devotion' 
betrays  this  attitude  of  the  past.  Many  well  meaning 
ministers  hesitated  to  discuss  with  the  laity  the 
findings  of  scholars  in  realms  of  religion.  An  over 
conservative  theology  heckled,  found  fault  with  many 
of  the  finest  teachers  in  our  colleges ;  and  on  the  first 
sign  of  the  appearance  of  these  newer  findings  in 
popular  religious  literature,  cried  out  against  the 
writers  as  purveyors  of  heresy.  High  school  and  col- 
lege students  were  given  cause  to  feel  that  they  were 
compelled  to  choose  between  the  church  with  its  old 
cautious  attitude  toward  modern  learning  and  with 
its  medieval  concepts  of  the  universe,  and  the  scien- 
tific interpretation  of  the  world  about  us.  Young 
people  by  the  hundreds  were  giving  up  their  Bibles 
and  the  church,  not  realizing  that  they  could  walk 


1  Charles    Edward    Jefferson — "The    New   Age    and    Its    Creed. 
98. 


[148] 


MODERN  THEOLOGY 

with  both  Christ  and  science.  Well  equipped  and 
devoted  ministers  suspected  of  favoring  a  progres- 
sive theology  were  marked  as  dangerous,  or  con- 
demned with  faint  praise  and  their  influence  damaged. 
This  is  not  to  say  that  there  was  no  fault  on  the  part 
•of  science  or  scientist,  —  there  was ;  but  we,  here,  are 
simply  tracing  a  change  of  attitude  in  theology  and 
the  temper  of  the  church. 

It  would  be  too  much  to  affirm  that  all  this  is  past, 
but  the  crisis  is  past.  Theology  has  become  more 
humble,  more  willing  to  heed  the  voice.  "Except  ye 
become  as  little  children  ye  can  not  enter."  The 
temper  of  the  church  has  become  more  reasonable, 
more  tolerant,  less  irritating.  Progressives  are  in  the 
ascendency.  In  all  the  recent  church  conventions 
whether  in  the  home  or  foreign  field,  whether  in  the 
International  Sunday  School  Convention  or  those  of 
the  Presb}i:erians  or  Baptist  —  undue  controversy 
was  easily  silenced  and  reactionary  forces  were  out- 
voted. The  interests  centered  not  about  creed,  but 
about  religious  activities  and  the  great  world  tasks. 
Not  radicals,  but  men  with  open  minds  and  the  for- 
ward look,  devout  men  of  progressive  temperament 
of  thought  as  well  as  of  action  held  the  reins  of 
larger  influence.  There  could  not  be  real  progress 
under  reactionary  leadership. 

In  the  not  distant  past  it  was  thought  that  this 
progressive  attitude  in  theology  was  detrimental  to 
spirituality,  especially  to  evangelistic  zeal  and  suc- 
cess. But  that  position  can  not  now  be  successfully 
defended.    Hundreds  of  men  progressive  in  theology 

[149] 


EELIGIOUS  OPTIMISM 

have  manifested  real  passion  in  revival  work  and 
have  enjoyed  phenomenal  success  in  '  soul  winning. ' 

Hugh  Price  Hughes  was  progressive,  but  zealously 
evangelistic.  It  was  said  of  him,  ''That  he  recalled 
our  earl}^  fervor  and  enthusiasm  for  the  souls  of  men 
and  brought  us  in  touch  with  contemporary  life  and 
the  great  movement  of  the  time. ' '  Henry  Drummond 
was  progressive  in  Theology  —  a  teacher  of  science 
and  an  earnest  advocate  and  great  expounder  of  the 
doctrine  of  evolution,  but  he  possessed  so  great  zeal 
for  evangelistic  work  that  he  became  a  co-worker  with 
Dwight  L.  Moody  in  his  great  revival  campaigns. 
The  late  Bishop  Bashford  was  one  of  the  greatest 
missionary  statesmen  of  the  Methodist  Church,  an 
earnest  advocate  of  the  doctrine  of  sanctification,  and 
passionately  evangelistic.  But  he  was  progressive  in 
theology.  Indeed,  as  the  newer  theological  spirit  and 
method  have  found  expression  in  the  pulpit,  the 
religious  press,  and  Sunday  School  literature,  some- 
what in  the  same  measure  has  the  church  made  its 
greatest  gains  in  membership,  greatest  increase  in 
Sunday  School  interest  and  attendance,  greatest  ad- 
vance on  the  foreign  field,  and  has  had  the  courage 
to  formulate  its  greatest  programs  and  launch  its 
greatest  campaigns  for  immediate  future  activities. 
It  is,  of  course,  too  much  to  claim  all  this  as  a  result 
of  a  new  spirit  and  method  in  theology,  but  it  is  cer- 
tainly quite  within  the  bounds  of  truth  to  affirm  that 
this  progressive  attitude  has  in  no  sense  blocked  the 
onward  movements  of  Christianity,  and  that  the  fine 
achievements  of  the  past  two  decades  could  not  have 

[150] 


MODERN  THEOLOGY 

been  made  with  the  dead  hand  of  a  non-progressive, 
dogmatic  theology  weighing  heavily  upon  the  Church. 
''A  religion  which  is  adapted  to  the  requirements  of 
modern  life  must  first  of  all  be  adjusted  to  modern 
science.  A  religion  which  is  not  in  harmony  with 
modern  science  can  not  possibly  remain  the  religion 
of  the  thinking  class  of  the  future."^ 

The  newer  theology,  of  course,  gives  far  greater 
consideration  to  the  social  aspects  of  Christianity. 
It  will  build  upon  social  science  as  well  as  upon  the 
Bible.  The  older  theology  was  so  deeply  interested 
in  divinity  that  it  came  dangerously  near  overlooking 
humanity,  especially  humanity's  social  needs  and  re- 
lations. H.  G.  Wells  is  correct  in  saying  "that  by  the 
fourth  century  we  find  all  the  Christian  communities 
so  agitated  and  exasperated  by  tortuous  and  elusive 
arguments  about  the  nature  of  God  as  to  be  largely 
negligent  of  the  simpler  teachings  of  charity,  service 
and  brotherhood  that  Jesus  inculcated."  This  pecul- 
iar emphasis  upon  creed  and  theology  continued  until 
late  into  the  nineteenth  century.  Out  of  it  we  have 
inherited  two  hundred  m-ore  or  less  Protestant  sects 
and  denominations.  Not  ceasing  to  stress  the  first 
great  commandment,  God  and  our  love  for  Him,  our 
newer  theology  gives  greater  emphasis  to  the  second 
—  our  neighbor  and  our  love  for  him.  Not  ceasing 
to  concern  itself  about  the  Bible  and  the  supernatural, 
it  gathers  also  freely  from  psychology,  anthropology, 
biology,  comparative  religion,  sociology  and  history. 
The  newer  theology  will  make  room  for  a  spiritual 


1  Charles  A.  Ellwood,  The  Reconstruction  of  Religion,  p.  3. 

[13:] 


RELIGIOUS  OPTIMISM 

biology.  It  will  become  less  coldly  logical  and  meta- 
physical, less  of  Paul  and  more  of  Christ  who  de- 
clared ''I  am  the  way,  the  truth  and  the  life,"  and 
am  come  'Hhat  ye  might  have  life  and  might  have  it 
more  abundantly." 

We  repeat,  it  is  not  so  much  in  what  modern 
theology  has  achieved  toward  completing  a  new  sys- 
tem, but  in  her  spirit,  method  and  forward  look 
there  is  hope  for  the  future.  We  find  ground  for  op- 
timism in  that  the  Church  has  the  courage  to  change 
her  opinions,  is  willing  more  largely  to  use  the  scien- 
tific method,  in  that  without  breaking  from  the  truth 
as  it  is  found  in  the  scriptures  she  is  more  willing 
to  recognize  facts  and  reality  wherever  found,  in  that 
she  has  discovered  that,  in  the  last  analysis,  the 
highest  loyalty  to  Christ  is  unflinching  loyalty  to  the 
truth. 


[152] 


OTHER  TENDENCIES 


"Today,  we  are  in  the  midst  of  a  religious  revolution, 
which  is  going  on  so  quietly  that  many  do  not  notice  it, 
although  it  is  a  greater  and  more  fundamental  revolution 
than  any  since  the  early  years  of  the  Christian  era.  We 
are  witnessing  great  changes  in  the  attitude  of  the  churches 
on  questions  of  faith  and  science.  The  spirit  of  science 
has  entered  into  religion." 

—  E.   G.  Conhlin, 
"The  Direction  of  Human  Evolution.'^ 

"We  are  the  witnesses  of  the  collapse  of  a  finished  epoch ; 
the  new  generation  is  already  at  work,  in  many  unrelated, 
apparently  conflicting  ways,  at  the  building  of  another  — 
even  as  we  read,  a  new  world  is  coming  up  in  sombre  dawn." 

—  Fitch, 
"Can  the  Church  Survive  in  the  Changing  Order?'' 


CHAPTER  XVII 

Other  Tendencies 

IN  THIS  chapter,  we  desire  in  a  loose-handed  way 
to  call  attention  to  a  number  of  tendencies,  all  of 
which  we  think  are  of  a  trend  to  inspire  optimism. 

Since  theology  is  the  science  of  religion,  it  may  not 
be  out  of  place  to  speak  a  word  here  in  regard  to  the 
relation  of  theology  and  science  in  general.  Ministers 
now  in  middle  life  have  had  an  opportunity  to  witness 
three  acts  in  a  drama  that  might  have  resulted  in 
real  tragedy.  As  young  men,  we  were  reading  about 
the  warfare  of  science  and  theology.  A  little  later  we 
were  reading  books  on  the  reconciliation  of  science 
and  theology.  We  are  now  reading  about  the  co- 
operation of  science  and  theology.  These  changes  are 
very  significant.  What  tragedy  would  have  resulted 
had  this  unnatural  warfare  of  the  past  with  all  its 
bitterness  continued,  and  there  had  resulted  a  con- 
stant conflict  between  the  faith  of  the  heart  and  the 
integrity  of  the  head.  Whatever  conflict  may  have 
existed  was  simply  between  bad  science  on  the  one 
hand,  and  equally  bad  theology  on  the  other.  We 
have  come  to  see  that  there  can  be  no  more  real  con- 
flict between  the  final  findings  of  science  and  theology 
than  that  truth  can  be  in  conflict  with  itself.  The 
passing  of  this  old  warfare  is  a  positive  gain  to  the 
church,  as  it  is  also  to  science. 

[155] 


OTHER  TENDENCIES 

Science  has  not  hesitated  to  change.  Abraham-like, 
it  has  not  hesitated  to  sacrifice  the  ''dearest  children 
of  its  own  thought."  In  this  particular,  at  least, 
science  has  been  more  courageous  than  the  older 
theology.  The  church  has  had  its  saints  and  martyrs 
—  dauntless  souls  who  have  cheerfully  died  for  their 
faith.  ''Our  age  has  also  its  saints  and  martyrs- — 
heroes  who  not  only  face  death  for  their  faith,  but 
who  can  scrap  their  faith  when  facts  have  proved  it 
wrong.  This,  indeed,  is  courage,  and  therein  lies 
hope."^  Science  has  spent  little  time  in  heresy  hunt- 
ing or  in  heresy  trials.  Theology  in  the  past  was 
wanting  at  this  point.  Her  spirit  of  inquisition  in 
the  past  does  not  make  pleasant  reading.  Where  we 
should  expect  tolerance  she  was  intolerant.  She  was 
reluctant  to  drop  worn-out  and  false  views  even  after 
they  were  proved  false.  She  was  slow  to  drop  the 
Ptolemaic  for  the  Copernican  theory  of  astronomy, 
slow  to  scrap  Ussher's  System  of  Chronology  in 
the  face  of  all  the  findings  of  Geology  and  Anthrop- 
ology, slow  to  break  from  the  guidance  of  the  letter, 
to  that  of  the  spirit  in  Biblical  interpretation.  To  be 
sure,  the  church  is  under  no  obligation  to  follow  every 
beck  and  turn  of  "science-so-called,"  nor  the  latest 
wind  that  blows  in  modern  thought.  To  run  after 
every  new  doctrine  because  it  is  new,  would  be  as  fatal 
as  to  eschew  the  new,  simply  because  it  is  new,  and 
even  more  fatal  than  to  cling  to  the  old  because  it  is 
old.  But  the  church  has  finally  learned  that  she, 
too,  can  change,  and  in  many  particulars  is  also  learn- 

1  Lothrop  Stoddard — "The  Revolts  against  Civilization" — p.  85. 

[156] 


OTHER  TENDENCIES 

ing  the  wisdom  of  letting  the  ''dead  past  bury  its 
dead.'' 

Furthermore,  it  was  not  long  since  that  the  church 
held  a  concept  of  faith  that  was  largely  incompatible 
with  reason.  We  often  speak  of  blind  faith.  Faith 
is  not  blind.  Faith,  at  least  in  one  of  its  important 
aspects,  is  simply  reason  consulting  the  experience 
of  the  past  and  all  available  knowledge  and  then 
launching  into  the  unknown  in  the  direction  that 
present  knowledge  and  past  experience  point.  Eeason 
falters,  faith  dares;  reason  keeps  safely  within  the 
known,  faith  ventures  and  tries  the  unknown,  but  she 
ventures  in  the  direction  reason  indicates.  Faith  is 
more  than  reason,  but  it  is  not  unreasonable.  In  the 
past,  the  church  has  feared,  and  rightly  too,  a  ration, 
alism  with  faith  and  religion  left  out.  The  modem 
church  has  come  to  see  that  there  is  danger  in  a  faith, 
a  religion  with  reason  left  out.  Reason  as  well  as 
faith  has  its  rights.  The  church  has  not  lost  faith. 
It  is  simply  making  greater  use  of  reason  and  this  is 
a  step,  we  think,  in  the  right  direction.  **The  ages 
of  irrational  faith,  we  may  hope,  are  past  or  passing ; 
but  the  age  of  a  rational  and  understanding  faith  is 
still  ahead.  We  need  the  maximum  of  faith,  not  the 
minimum;  but  it  must  be  a  faith  built  upon  facts. "^ 

Many  writers  are  insisting  that  the  sanctions  of 
the  Christian  religion  are  not  as  strong  as  in  earlier 
days.  ''There  was,"  says  H.  G.  Wells,  "a  loss  of 
faith  after  1859.     The  true  gold  of  religion  was  in 


^  Charles  A.  Ellwood — "The  Reconstruction  of  Religion" — p,  31. 
[157] 


EELIGIOUS  OPTIMISM 

many  cases  thrown  away  with  the  worn-out  purse  that 
contained  it  and  it  was  not  recovered.  .  .  .  The  seven- 
teenth century  kings,  owners,  rulers  and  lead- 
ers had  had  the  idea  at  the  back  of  their  minds 
that  they  prevailed  by  the  will  of  God;  they  really 
feared  him,  they  got  priests  to  put  things  right  for 
them  with  him.  When  they  were  wicked,  they  tried 
not  to  think  of  him.  But  the  old  faith  of  kings,  owners, 
and  rulers  of  the  opening  twentieth  century  had 
faded  under  the  actinic  light  of  scientific  criticisms."^ 
Bertrand  Eussell  thinks:  *'The  influence  of  the 
Christian  religion  on  daily  life  has  decayed  very 
rapidly  throughout  Europe  the  last  hundred  years;" 
and  Professor  Ellwood  says:  "Not  only  have  re- 
ligious beliefs  and  values  changed  but  they  have  been 
immensely  weakened."  This  is  partially  true,  but  it 
is  not  all  loss.  The  old  sanctions  were  largely  those 
of  fear  and  superstition.  They  were  the  sanctions 
of  the  policeman's  club.  What  the  Christian  religion 
has  lost  in  this  direction  it  has  gained  and  will  con- 
tinue to  gain  in  wholesomeness.  The  Christian  re- 
ligion is  more  and  more  substituting  the  sanctions  of 
science  for  superstition;  of  well  tested  truth  for  tra- 
dition; of  reason,  not  for  faith,  but  for  irrational 
faith;  of  love  for  fear;  of  a  desire  to  serve  one's 
age  for  that  of  an  individualistic  salvation  which 
often  meant  but  little  more  than  an  escape  from 
future  punishment.  The  sanction,  the  incentive  in 
religion  today  is  largely  that  of  a  finer  devotion  to  the 


1  Outline  of  History— p.  957.     The  single  volume. 

[158] 


OTHER  TENDENCIES 

welfare  of  our  fellowman  growing  out  of  a  love  of 
God  as  the  common  Father  of  us  all. 

Much  of  the  common  complaint  to  the  effect  that 
the  Church  has  lost  its  old  time  power,  has  in  mind 
the  loss  of  the  old  time  manifestations  of  emotion  and 
ecstacy.  The  demand  of  this  age,  with  the  passion 
and  hate  that  characterize  certain  classes,  along  with 
the  wear  and  tear  of  our  industrial  life,  is  not  for  an 
emotional  religion.  Social  conditions  today  demand  a 
religion  of  the  cool  head  as  well  as  of  the  warm  heart ; 
a  religion  the  fruits  of  which  are  gentleness,  long- 
suffering,  goodness,  love,  joy,  peace,  self-control;  in 
short,  of  the  tender  sympathy  and  calm,  unshakable 
repose  of  spirit  that  characterized  Christ  as  he  minis- 
tered midst  the  stress,  passion  and  hate  of  his  day. 
The  absence  of  the  old  time  emotionalism,  however 
well  it  served  its  day,  may  be  a  mark  of  the  whole- 
someness  of  the  religion  that  is  striving  to  minister  to 
our  day.  ''Of  emotional  Christianity,  the  world  has 
had  enough,  and  has  proved  its  utter  inadequacy, 
except  when  it  is  accompanied  by  a  thorough  compre- 
hension and  radical  acceptance  of  Christianity's 
Leader."' 

The  modern  trend  toward  union  among  the 
churches  is  a  hopeful  sign.  In  the  past,  it  looked  as 
if  Protestantism  might  deteriorate  into  a  ''mere 
huddle  -of  sects,  divided  over  lilliputian  matters"  — 
eighteen  bodies  of  Methodists,  eighteen  of  Baptists, 
sixteen  of  Mennonites,  twelve  of  Presbyterians,  some 
two  hundred  sects  and  denominations  in  all,  spending 


1  Charles   A.  Ellwood — "Reconstruction   of  Religion" — p.   152. 
[159] 


RELIGIOUS  OPTIMISM 

their  energies,  in  the  not  distant  past,  in  sectarian 
bitterness  and  strife.  Milton  rightly  characterized 
that  condition  as  'Hhe  fantastic  terrors  of  sects  and 
schisms."  "We  still  have  the  divisions  as  an  inheri- 
tance of  the  past,  but  the  strife  and  bitterness  is 
subsiding.  The  divisive  spirit  has  largely  past.  The 
tide  has  turned.  While  certain  denominations  are 
exercised  a  bit  over  the  fundamentalist  movement, 
on  the  other  hand,  every  week  brings  news  of  overtures 
of  union.  Instead  of  bitterness  there  has  sprung  up 
respect  and  good  will.  Instead  of  strife  there  is 
friendship.  ''Instead  of  the  thorn  there  has  come 
up  the  fir  tree  and  instead  of  the  briar  has  come  up 
the  myrtle  tree."  Mutual  understanding  has  been 
reached  in  regard  to  work  in  the  foreign  field,  and 
spheres  of  influence  and  activity  have  been  agreed 
upon.  Co-operative  enterprises  are  undertaken  in 
maintaining  Christian  colleges,  and  in  the  support  of 
student  pastors  at  State  Universities.  This  is  not  to 
say  there  will  be  no  divisions  in  the  future.  It  is  to 
say  that  the  psychological  attitude  has  been  reversed. 
We  are  looking  in  the  right  direction.  In  a  recent 
convention  of  the  churches  in  China,  the  tendency 
was  to  igore  the  things  that  divide  Christianity  of 
the  Western  world,  and  to  unite  in  a  Chinese  Christian 
church. 

Witness  the  Council  of  the  federated  Churches  of 
Christ  in  America  through  which  some  thirty-five  de- 
nominations and  100,000  ministers  and  20,000,000 
members  all  acknowledge  the  Deity  and  Lordship  of 
Christ,  and  are  working  hand  in  hand  for  the  redemp- 

[i6o] 


OTHER  TENDENCIES 

tion  of  men.  There  has  sprung  up  in  these  recent 
years  a  fine  spirit  of  good  will  and  co-operation  among 
the  different  religious  denominations. 

It  is  generally  recognized  that  we  are  passing 
through  a  transitional  period  that  amounts  virtually 
to  a  revolution  —  changes  in  industry,  transportation, 
business,  politics,  government,  science  and  philos- 
ophy. It  would  be  strange  indeed  if  there  were  not 
changes  in  the  forms  of  religious  thought,  and  in  the 
programs  for  religious  activity.  The  question  is  re- 
peatedly asked,  ^'Can  the  church  survive  this  chang- 
ing order;  can  she  meet  the  tremendous  demands  of 
the  age  V  It  should  be  remembered  in  a  progressive 
civilization,  every  age  involves  a  crisis,  not  only  for 
the  church  but  for  all  existing  institutions.  The 
demands  upon  Christianity  in  our  present  crisis  are 
relatively  no  greater,  the  test  relatively  no  severer 
than  during  the  apostolic  age,  the  age  of  Savonarola, 
of  Luther,  or  of  Wesley.  Besides,  periods  of  transi- 
tion are  fraught  with  opportunity  as  well  as  with 
danger.  It  is  the  breaking  up  period  that  brings  the 
greater  danger.  We  have  fairly  well  survived  that 
phase  of  the  transition.  *'When  human  nature  is 
most  uncertain  of  itself,  it  is  most  easily  influenced. 
Where  conviction  is  wanting,  persuasion  has  its  op- 
portunity. A  restless  age  is  a  plastic  age.  The  mood 
of  our  times  has  surrendered  to  neither  good  nor  evil ; 
it  presents  each  with  an  opportunity  for  conquest. 
While  it  is  yet  pliable,  neither  the  good  nor  the  evil 
has  the  advantage  over  the  other.  ^    Our  age  is  restless 


1  John   William   Fraser — "The   Untried   Civilization." — p,    56. 

[i6i] 


RELIGIOUS  OPTIMISM 

and  pliable.  The  opportunity  for  religious  recon- 
struction is  before  the  church.  Professor  Ellwood 
states  the  situation  well  in  the  following  question  and 
answer :  ' '  What  is  to  be  the  end  of  the  religious  revo- 
lution? Is  it  to  end  in  the  negation  of  religion  and, 
possibl}^,  of  idealistic  morality? 

''Before  any  one  draws  such  a  pessimistic  con- 
clusion, it  would  be  well  to  remember  that  while  the 
dangers  of  serious  reversion  are  great  in  any  period 
of  social  transition,  and  revolution,  yet  they  are  not 
insurmountable,  and  if  met  by  rational  intelligence, 
they  will  probably  be  overcome  and  a  higher  stage  of 
development  ushered  in.  Human  history  indeed  gives 
us  every  encouragement  to  believe  that  this  will  be 
the  result  in  the  present  crisis. ' ' 


[162] 


FACING  FACTS 


"Truth  crushed  to  earth  shall  rise  again  — 
The  Eternal  years  of  God  are  hers, 
But  error,  wounded,  writhes  in  pain. 
And  dies  among  his  worshippers." 

Bryant. 

"Intelligent  and  brave  men  are  not  dismayed  by  danger. 
The  good  citizen  sees  in  the  perils  that  threaten  society 
only  occasions  for  more  active  effort,  more  earnest  thought, 
and  more  unselfish  devotion  to  duty." 

Giddings, —    "Elements  of  Sociology. '' 

"The  church  universal  with  all  its  confusion  is  our  in- 
heritance, and  its  confusions  are  a  part  of  our  inheritance; 
and  if  instead  of  rejecting  the  church  because  of  its  con- 
fusions, we  study  these,  we  are  likely  to  find  certain  aspects 
of  order  emerge;  in  the  midst  of  disorder  some  things  will 
stand  out  clearly.  For  instance,  in  every  age  and  land,  what- 
ever its  confusion,  the  great  Christian  Community  has  had 
the  gift  of  producing  a  higher  and  greater  type  of  character 
and  such  a  type  surely  implies  an  unexpected  unity." 

—  F.  R.  Graver, 
The  Nature  and  Purpose  of  Christian  Society. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 
Facing  Facts 

IT  would  be  easy,  ostrich-fasliion,  to  bury  our 
heads  in  the  sands  of  the  pleasant  facts  of  our 
Christian  civilization  only,  and  refuse  to  recognize 
certain  very  distressing  phases  of  our  modem  life. 
Divorces,  juvenile  delinquency  and  crime  in  general 
are,  no  doubt,  on  the  increase.  Eaymond  B.  Fosdick, 
in  his  American  Police  System  gives  ample  facts 
concerning  the  amount  of  crime  in  this  country  com- 
pared with  that  in  European  countries,  and  the  com- 
parison is  by  no  means  flattering  to  America.  He 
places  much  of  the  blame  on  our  police  system.  To 
be  sure,  since  the  war,  crime  has  been  so  featured  by 
our  newspapers  as  to  leave  a  distorted  view  of  real 
conditions.  Crime  has  been  represented  as  a  wave, 
and  as  if  we  are  on  the  crest  of  that  wave.  But  these 
outbreaks  of  social  disorder  perhaps  represent  not  so 
much  a  wave,  as  they  do  a  rather  constant  current  that 
flows  down  through  our  American  life.  It  must  be 
admitted  that  it  is  a  rather  wide  and  deep  current. 

Before  the  World  War  was  thought  of,  the  Literary 
Digest,  under  the  caption,  ''The  Helpless  Police, '* 
gave  some  rather  startling  facts  in  regard  to  the  preva- 
lence and  cost  of  crime.  The  figures  are  given  for 
1908,  and  by  a  conspicuous  diagram,  point  out  for 
that  year: 

[i6s] 


RELIGIOUS  OPTIMISM 

Value  of  wool $298,000,000 

Value  of  coal 350,000,000 

Value  of  wheat 735,000,000 

National  Debt  964,000,000 

Annual  cost  of  crime 1,373,000,000 

and  then,  somewhat  in  keeping  with  Mr.  Fosdick's 
complaint,  asks:  ^*Do  these  facts,- — when  offset 
against  our  two  convictions  in  every  one  hundred  mur- 
ders—  explain  why  our  lawlessness  is  increasing, 
why  we  have  more  homicides  every  year  than  Italy, 
Austria,  France,  Belgium,  England,  Ireland,  Scot- 
land, Spain,  Hungary,  Holland  and  Germany  com- 
bined?'' Much  of  our  after- war  lawlessness  is  freely 
conceded  to  be  due  to  the  lapse  in  morals,  that,  as 
shown  by  history,  is  a  regular  consequence  of  war. 
May  not  some  of  this  lawlessness  be  due  to  a  deeper 
cause?  New  forces,  though  in  the  end  beneficial, 
often  are  the  cause  of  real  disturbances. 

The  approach  of  spring,  by  the  breaking  up  of 
ice,  and  freshets  from  melting  snow  often  cause  in- 
convenience and  real  damage.  The  growing  sense  of 
democracy  is  susceptible  to  certain  abuses.  Liberty, 
to  many,  means  license.  Lawlessness  at  times  is  but 
a  surface  indication,  lamentable  to  be  sure,  of  the 
working  of  a  principle  that  in  itself  is  good.  It  is  a 
paradox  we  know,  but  in  this  sense,  increased  crime 
may  be  a  sign  of  increasing  good. 

When  a  student  in  college,  I  had  a  very  fine  in- 
structor who  later  became  the  sainted  Bishop  Bash- 
ford.  It  was  during  that  period  when,  in  religious 
circles,    there    was    considerable    concern    over    the 

[166] 


FACING  FACTS 

theory  of  evolution  lest  it  should  endanger  or  over- 
throw our  old  faith.  Dr.  Bashford  was  an  **  evolu- 
tionist" and  wisely  tried  to  guide  his  students  from 
the  old  theory  to  the  new  without  a  complete  break 
in  their  Christian  moorings.  He  used  to  impress 
upon  us  that  in  the  evolution  of  the  Christian  King- 
dom, while  the  Kingdom  of  Christ  may  be  growing 
better  and  larger,  the  Kingdom  of  darkness  might 
grow  the  more  intensely  wicked,  until  in  time  a  gulf 
between  the  two  kingdoms  might  become  fixed.  Can 
it  be  that  this,  in  a  measure,  is  what  we  are  now  wit- 
nessing ? 

There  is  a  significant  passage  also  in  the  teachings 
of  Christ :  ' '  Think  not  that  I  come  to  send  peace  on 
the  earth:  I  come  not  to  send  peace,  but  a  sword, 
for  I  am  come  to  set  a  man  at  variance  against  his 
father,  and  the  daughter  against  her  mother,  and  the 
daughter-in-law  against  her  mother-in-law."  This 
clearly  sets  forth  the  disturbing  nature  of  even  a 
benevolent  principle  —  the  confusion  that  accom- 
panies a  transition  —  that  may  precede  a  larger  and 
better  epoch.  Apply  this  to  the  increase  of  juvenile 
crime  and  divorce.  In  a  measure,  at  least,  these  grow- 
ing irregularities  may  be  the  surface  indication  that 
the  Kingdom  of  Christ  is  advancing. 

The  gradual  emancipation  and  crowning  of  the 
child  under  the  influence  of  Christianity,  is  a  long 
and  interesting  story  —  far  too  long  to  narrate  here 
in  anything  like  detail.  The  power  of  life  and  death 
of  the  father  over  the  son  in  Roman  civilization  was 
by  no  means  a  mere  legal  fiction.     Three  different 

[167] 


RELIGIOUS  OPTIMISM 

Romans  of  position  —  Cassius,  Scarus,  and  Fulvius 
—  are  mentioned  by  Valerius  Maximus  as  having 
been  executed  by  their  fathers  and  another  son  was 
banished  by  his  father.  ^  The  right  of  a  father  to  sell 
his  son  in  case  of  great  need  and  poverty  was  fully 
recognized.  The  revolting  and  inhuman  practice  of 
exposure  or  abandonment  of  children  of  the  poor, 
and  of  female  and  defective  children  of  the  rich,  was 
common.  Many  of  course  perished  from  exposure, 
or  were  torn  to  pieces  by  wild  beasts,  but  the  girls 
were  often  picked  up  to  be  reared  for  immoral  pur- 
poses and  the  defectives  to  be  exhibited  for  gain. 
Parental  tyranny  even  in  the  most  private  matters  of 
the  family  persisted  well  into  the  Christian  era. 

In  early  American  life  we  had  the  patriarchal  fam- 
ily. The  old  Puritan  tradition  of  work  also  sanc- 
tioned child  labor,  and  even  leading  statesmen  looked 
upon  the  coming  of  ''the  Mill"  as  a  blessing  to 
furnish  employment  to  the  idle  youth.  Family  tra- 
ditions and  ideals  in  favor  of  child  labor,  as  well  as 
the  greed  on  the  part  of  manufacturers,  made  it 
easy  to  put  both  women  and  children  in  our  mills. 
As  a  natural  outgrowth,  the  American  factories  were 
manned  for  a  time  almost  entirely  by  women  and 
children.  Certain  European  immigrants  particularly 
laid  the  emphasis  on  family  labor  and  thrift.  Parents 
were  interested  in  children  for  their  economic  value. 
''On  the  birth  of  a  son,  they  exulted  in  the  gift  of 
a  plough-man  or  waggoner;  and  on  the  birth  of  a 
daughter  they  rejoiced  in  the  addition  of  another 


1  Gesta  Christi,  0.  L.  Brace,  p.  10. 

[168] 


FACING  FACTS 

spinster  or  milkmaid  to  the  family."^  This  family 
system  of  labor,  and  the  view  that  children  might 
be  an  advantage  for  industry  and  gain,  still  persists 
in  the  cotton  mills  of  the  south,  and  recent  decisions 
of  the  Supreme  Court  would  seem  to  render  us  help- 
less to  remedy  the  situation  by  federal  law.  In  the 
very  recent  past,  therefore  children  were  found  in 
the  shops.  This  age  has  put  the  child  in  the  school. 
Tomorrow,  with  our  perfected  Sunday  School,  we 
shall  put  the  child  not  in  the  shop,  —  there  untimely 
to  waste  its  energies  of  body  and  mind,  —  but  in  both 
the  school  and  the  Church  where,  in  keeping  with 
divine  economy,  it  belongs;  and  this  promises  to  cor- 
rect much  of  our  juvenile  irregularity.  It  is  signifi- 
cant that  even  now  the  Sunday  School  enrollment  of 
our  country  surpasses  that  of  our  public  school  en- 
rollment. But  the  improved  Sunday  School  of  the 
future  must  do  better  work  in  building  character. 
What  other  age  found  its  children  in  both  the  school 
and  church? 

There  is  little  any  longer  in  common  between  the 
home  of  modern  life  and  that  of  colonial  times.  This 
transition  was  gradually  going  on  during  the  early 
period  of  our  national  history.  Since  the  Civil  War, 
the  change  has  been  made  complete.  This  new  spirit 
of  tolerance  and  freedom  which  now  prevails  in  the 
home,  has  had  its  bad  as  well  as  its  good  effect.  While 
we  can  now  boast  of  the  bright,  free  children  that 
grace  our  American  life,  this  freedom  on  the  other 
hand    easily   gave   rise   to    youthful   precocity,    dis- 


^  See   "Introduction  to  Social  Ethics" — by  Mecklin,  p,  229. 

[169] 


RELIGIOUS  OPTIMISM 

obedience  and  juvenile  delinquency.*  The  past 
crowned  the  supposedly  great  and  mighty.  This  age 
is  fast  dispensing  with  such  crowned  dignitaries.  With 
greater  wisdom  and  in  keeping  with  the  Christ  ex- 
ample, we  crown  the  child.  Such  a  revolution,  of 
course,  could  not  be  effected  without  certain  regret- 
table disorders.  While  these  transitions  cost,  they 
are  worth  while.  "The  greater  the  rate  of  progress 
the  heavier  does  the  cost  become ;  the  faster  the  march, 
the  larger  is  the  number  of  the  exhausted  who  fall  by 
the  way.  Progress  like  any  other  form  of  motion  in 
the  Universe,  starts  reactions  against  itself."^  To  a 
certain  extent,  juvinile  delinquencies,  therefore,  may 
indicate  progress. 

Equally  interesting  is  the  gradual  evolution  of  the 
modem  woman  under  the  elevating  influence  of 
Christianity.  This  story  also  is  too  long  to  narrate 
in  these  pages.  Women  today  have  been  granted  suf- 
frage in  something  like  twenty-five  different  countries 
and  provinces.  They  have  finally  come  to  their  own 
industrially,  socially,  politically.  But  with  this  new 
freedom,  and  no  doubt,  partly  because  of  it,  divorces 
are  on  the  increase. 

Few  things  are  more  alarming  in  our  modem  civil- 
ization than  this  growing  menace  to  the  integrity  of 
family  life.  Statistics  indicate  that  *'in  1885  the 
United  States  had  23,472  divorces,  while  all  other 
Christian  countries  had  20,131.  In  1905,  the  figures 
were  68,000  to  40,000,  the  United  States  leading  the 


1  See  Mecklin.     Introduction  to  Social  Ethics,  p.  236. 
1  Giddings,  Elements  of  Sociology,  p.  318. 

[I70] 


FACING  FACTS 

rest  of  Christendom  by  28,000  divorces.  During  the 
decade  from  1890  to  1900,  divorces  increased  in  this 
country  sixty-six  and  six-tenths  per  cent,  or  more 
than  three  times  the  increase  in  population.  By  1906 
the  proportion  of  divorces  to  marriages  was  approxi- 
mately one  to  thirteen  and  nine  tenths.  If  the  pres- 
ent rate  of  increase  of  divorces  continues,  it  has  been 
estimated  that  by  the  end  of  the  century,  more  than 
half  of  all  marriages  will  end  in  divorce.''^  Since 
1916  the  divorce  rate  in  the  United  States  exceeds 
that  of  Japan,  which  had  previously  had  the  highest 
rate  of  any  great  civilized  nation.  A  glance  at  the 
following  table  will  indicate  the  growth  of  this  evil : 
Divorces  hy  Years 


1901....  61,698 

1911....  94,622 

1902....  62,108 

1912....  100,927 

1903....  65,263 

1913.... 106,053 

1904....  67,086 

1914.... 110,759 

1905....  68,901 

1915.... 115,879 

1906....  72,786 

1916.... 114,036 

1907....  77,636 

1917.... 120,243 

1908....  81,579 

1918....  124,928 

1909....  85,199 

1919.... 129,496 

1910....  91,638 

1920.... 132,753 

The  decade. 

1900-1910 

,  733,894 

The  decade, 

1911-1920 

,  1,149,696 

Total  in  20  years  1,883,590 


1  Mecklin — Introduction  to  Social  Ethics. 

2  Six  counties  have  had  more  divorces  than  marriages:  Pawnee, 
Okla.;  Washoe,  Nev.;  Trinity,  Calif.;  Ruthford,  Tenn. ;  Union, 
Oregon;  Clackamas,  Oregon. 

[171] 


RELIGIOUS  OPTIMISM 

Divorced  persons  3,767,182 

Minor  children  named  in  divorce 

decrees  1,318,696 

Adult  children  affected      500,000 

The  worst  offenders  are  Montana,  Oklahoma,  In- 
diana, Arizona,  California,  Wyoming,  with  one  di- 
vorce in  six  marriages;  Idaho,  and  Washington  with 
one  in  five;  Oregon  with  one  in  two  and  five-tenths; 
Nevada  *' reaching  the  apex  of  national  infamy"  with 
a  ratio  of  one  divorce  to  one  and  five  tenths 
marriages/ 

There  are,  no  doubt,  many  factors  that  enter  this 
problem.  Perhaps  the  two  largest  are  the  economic 
and  the  m-oral.  The  economic  includes  unemploy- 
ment, low  wages,  a  feeling  of  inability  to  support  a 
family.  The  moral  includes  desertion,  cruelty, 
adultery,  and  drunkenness.  It  is  held  that  these 
moral  causes  constitute  ninety-seven  per  cent  of  di- 
vorces. The  prohibition  law  is  rapidly  correcting 
drunkenness  and  is  already  having  a  favorable  effect 
in  improving  family  relations.  But  it  is  not  easy 
to  separate  moral  and  economic  causes.  They  are 
inter-active  —  the  one  provoking  the  other. 

While  much  and  very  much  may  be  said  about  the 
virtues  of  the  American  home,  the  home  of  a  gener- 
ation ago  had,  along  with  all  that  might  be  said  in 
its  favor,  some  serious  limitations.  Its  virtues  flour- 
ished in  what  has  been  called  ''a  closed  circle."  These 
virtues  were  not  carried  over  into  the  larger  social  and 


1  According  to  lately  reported  statistics,  San  Francisco  has  half 
as  many  divorces  as  marriages,  and  Portland  has  one  divorce  for  every 
two  and  a  quarter  marriages. 

[172] 


FACING  FACTS 

civic  life.  If  not  selfish,  it  was  at  least  self-centered. 
Our  free,  progressive  democracy  has  broken  down 
some  of  the  older  artificial  and  external  supports,  and 
is  building  a  new  foundation  upon  free,  loyal  intel- 
lectual and  living  comradeship. 

Divorce,  therefore,  in  America  may  be  partly  inci- 
dental to  a  moral  transformation.  Professor  Howard 
makes  the  following  observation:  *'0f  a  truth  to  the 
serious  student  of  social  evolution,  the  accelerated 
divorce  movement  appears  clearly  as  an  incident  in 
the  mighty  process  of  spiritual  liberation  which  is 
radically  changing  the  relative  positions  of  men  and 
women  in  society.  .  .  .  The  corporate  unity  of  the 
patriarchal  family  has  been  broken  up  and  even 
completely  destroyed.  More  and  more,  wife  and  child 
have  been  released  from  the  sway  of  the  home-father, 
and  placed  directly  under  the  larger  social  control  .  .  . 
The  family  bond  is  no  longer  coercion,  but  persuasion. 
The  tie  which  holds  the  members  of  the  family  to- 
gether is  ceasing  to  be  judicial  and  becoming  spirit- 
ual. ^'^  Professor  Hudson,  also,  after  a  careful 
discussion  of  the  present  tendencies  and  symptoms  of 
the  age  reaches  the  conclusion:  "That  the  contra- 
dictions of  our  own  day  may  mean  the  advancement 
toward  a  new  moral  order.  "^ 

How  far  the  above  discussion  explains  the  ugly  facts 
of  the  prevalence  of  crime  and  social  evils,  we  shall 
not  try  definitely  to  estimate.  As  the  situation  now 
stands,  even  the  fervent  optimist  is  compelled  to  admit 


1  See   "Introduction  to  Social  Ethics" — Mecklin — p.  243. 

2  See   Charles   A.   EUwood — "The   Reconstruction   of   Religion." 
— ^p.  14. 


L'73] 


RELIGIOUS  OPTIMISM 

that  it  is  nothing  short  of  a  national  scandal  and 
menace  which  law  as  well  as  persuasion  and  the  best 
ethical  teaching  should  hasten  to  correct. 

It  is  difficult,  however,  for  an  optimist,  especially 
for  one  who  even  in  a  slight  way  has  come  in  touch 
with  European  life  to  believe  that  American  life,  and 
American  individual  character  is  as  much  more  cor- 
rupt than  European  life  as  comparative  tables  of 
crime  and  divorce  would  seem  to  indicate.  There 
must  be  a  different  and  more  favorable  explanation. 
There  are  those  who  maintain  that  European  family 
life  is  not  as  wholesome  as  in  America.  That  certain 
irregularities  there,  on  the  part  of  the  husband  in 
particular,  are  regarded  as  a  matter  of  course  and 
cause  little  disturbance  in  family  relations.  The  same 
laxity  in  America  would  strain  family  relations,  and 
lead  to  divorce.  So  far  as  this  is  true,  American 
domestic  life  is  the  more  wholesome,  even  though 
there  are  more  divorces. 

There  are  reasons  to  believe  that  when  all  the 
forces  are  properly  studied  that  cause  this  lamentable 
condition  in  America,  it  will  yet  be  seen  that  our 
family  life  is  essentially  sound,  and  that  there  never 
was  a  time  when  America  could  boast  of  so  many 
happy  homes,  and  so  much  wholesome  home  life  as 
at  the  present  time.  We  freely  admit  that  there  is 
cause  for  anxiety,  and  need  for  an  awakening  from 
our  indifference  in  regard  to  this  subject,  but  we  do 
not  believe  that  the  situation  need  produce  despair 
nor  pessimism. 


['74] 


WHAT  OF  THE  FUTURE  ? 


"The  Kingdom  is  coming,  not  come ;  the  Church  is  making, 
not  made.  Christendom  is  in  a  sense  a  word  of  the  past; 
its  history  may  be  traced  out  and  written  down.  In  a  sense 
it  is  a  word  of  the  present,  representing  a  mighty  living 
force  today.  Still  more  is  it  a  word  of  the  future,  for  as 
yet  we  have  not  been  able  to  see  what  Christianity  fully 
means.  He  was  right,  who  in  answer  to  the  question,  *Is 
the  Christian  religion  played  out?'  replied,  'It  has  not 
yet  been  tried'." 

—  W.  T.  Davison. 


CHAPTER  XIX 
What  of  the  Future 

IT  IS  quite  easy  to  prophesy,  particularly  if  one 
prophesies  concerning  events  to  be  fulfilled  far 
enough  in  the  future.  If  the  prophecy  is  not  fulfilled, 
one  can  conveniently  forget  the  whole  matter.  If, 
perchance,  it  should  prove  true,  one  can  claim  credit 
for  great  foresight. 

The  following  prophecy  is  attributed  to  Sir  Isaac 
Newton:  ''I  believe,  from  the  study  of  God's  word, 
that  in  the  future  He  will  greatly  accelerate  the  move- 
ment of  converting  the  world  and  accomplish  the  work 
suddenly.  But  I  am  convinced,  also,  from  the  study 
of  the  Word,  that  before  that  comes  to  pass,  there  will 
be  a  marvelous  increase  in  the  speed  of  transportation 
on  the  earth.  I  believe  that  in  the  Providence  of 
God,  though  the  method  now  be  entirely  hidden,  men 
will  yet  travel  on  the  earth  at  the  rate  of  fifty  miles 
an  hour."^  The  world  laughed  at  him ;  an  increase  of 
speed  from  eight  to  fifty  miles  an  hour  was  utterly 
beyond  the  frontier  of  its  thought.  The  keen  and 
caustic  Voltaire  said  in  bitter  scorn:  ''One  can  see 
how  stupid  the  old  Bible  is,  in  that  it  has  addled  the 
intellect  of  Sir  Isaac  Newton,  the  most  acute  on  the 
earth,  until  he  talks  like  a  fool.     He  says  the  time 


1  H.  G.  Wells  in  "Short  History  of  the  World"  soon  to  be  pub- 
lished will  predict  that  we  are  in  but  the  dawn  of  human  greatness, 
that  we  will  go  on  in  ever-widening  circles  of  adventure  and  achieve- 
ment— See  Colliers,  November  11,  1922. 

[177] 


RELIGIOUS  OPTIMISM 

will  come  when  a  man  will  be  at  one  point  on  the 
earth's  surface  at  the  beginning  of  an  hour  and  fifty- 
miles  away  at  the  end  of  it.    Absurd !    Unthinkable ! ' ' 

The  pessimist  was  wrong  again,  as  this  prediction 
of  the  optimist  has  been  more  than  fulfilled.  Two 
generations  ago  the  lumbering  old  stage  coach,  making 
about  eight  miles  an  hour,  was  quite  generally  in 
use.  Our  fastest  trains  now  run  on  a  sixty  mile  per 
hour  schedule,  and  have  reached  a  speed  of  112  miles 
an  hour,  thus  not  only  fulfilling  but  surpassing  Sir 
Isaac's  prediction  and  even  doubling  it. 

Should  we  go  back  a  hundred  years,  before  trains 
were  in  use,  and  compare  the  rate  of  travel  of  that 
day  with  modern  air  service,  we  secure  a  most  strik- 
ing contrast.  The  modem  flying  machine  can  make, 
if  necessary,  a  schedule  of  one  hundred  thirty  to  one 
hundred  fifty  miles  an  hour  —  an  increase  in  the  rate 
of  travel  of  over  one  thousand  per  cent  in  a  hundred 
years.  The  new  French  hospital  airship  is  construc- 
ted to  make  a  speed  of  one  hundred  thirty  miles  per 
hour.  On  April  6,  1922,  at  Daytona  Beach,  Florida, 
Sir  Haugdahl  drove  his  specially  constructed  motor 
car  at  the  rate  of  180.27  miles  per  hour,  covering  a 
mile  in  19.97  seconds,  thus  making  a  new  world 
record.  In  the  aerial  races,  Oct.  14,  1922,  a  distance 
of  1600  miles  was  traveled  at  an  average  speed  of 
206  miles  an  hour,  and  a  rate  of  248.5  per  mile  was 
reached,  covering  one  kilometer. 

So  far  as  the  United  States  is  concerned,  the  ac- 
cumulation of  wealth  also  is  phenomenal.  The  Na- 
tional wealth  of  the  United  States  was: 

[178] 


WHAT  OF  THE  FUTURE 

1850 $7,135,780,000 

1860   16,159,616,000 

1870   30,068,518,000 

1880   43,642,000,000 

1890   65,037,091,000 

1900   88,517,306,000 

1910   140,000,000,000 

1920   300,000,000,000 

Edgar  Crammond,  in  a  paper  read  before  the 
Bankers'  Institute,  London,  England,  June  1920,  esti- 
mated the  national  wealth  of  the  United  States  at 
$350,000,000,000  to  $400,000,000,000,  and  that  of 
other  great  countries  as  follows:^ 

The  United  Kingdom $120,000,000,000 

France 92,500,000,000 

Germany   83,000,000,000 

Italy  . . . .— 35,500,000,000 

Japan 23,500,000,000 

Belgium 12,000,000,000 

The  sense  of  Christian  stewardship,  as  pointed  out 
in  a  foregoing  chapter,  is  gaining  more  rapidly  than 
wealth  in  general.  There  is  a  basis  for  the  growing 
expectancy  through  the  new  emphasis  that  all  churches 
are  placing  on  the  obligation  of  stewardship,  and 
the  great  joy  and  satisfaction  people  are  discovering 
in  the  better  use  of  accumulated  wealth,  that  sud- 
denly the  Christian  nations,  in  keeping  with  the 
ideals  of  New  Testament  standards,  may  consecrate 
all  their  wealth  to  the  service  and  highest  welfare  of 
humanity. 

1  See  The  World  Almanac. 

[179] 


EELIGIOUS  OPTIMISM 

Moreover,  business  men  are  beginning  to  recognize 
the  economic  value  of  foreign  missions  and  are  in- 
teresting themselves  in  the  extension  of  Christianity. 
Not  long  since  the  Lieutenant  Governor  of  New 
Guinea  said  every  penny  spent  by  missionaries  saves 
pounds  to  the  administration,  for  the  missions  bring 
peace,  law  and  order.  Even  in  our  own  country,  the 
Digger  Indian  got  his  breakfast  out  of  an  ant  hill  with 
a  stick,  and  was  so  nearly  devoid  of  all  garments  that 
you  could  have  clothed  him  for  a  year  on  twenty-five 
cents  worth  of  cotton.  He  is  but  a  type  of  many  thou- 
sands in  the  heathen  world.  The  business  world  is  rec- 
ognizing that  you  can  not  carry  on  commerce  with 
such  peoples.  Christianize,  civilize  these  people  and 
they  will  need  shoes,  hats,  clothing,  furniture,  houses, 
tools,  machinery,  books,  papers,  a  thousand  and  one 
things  that  make  them  valuable  as  traders.  Our  aver- 
age business  with  England  is  about  one  hundred  fifty 
dollars  per  individual;  with  China  about  eight  dol- 
lars ;  with  Africa  about  three  dollars.  This  difference 
of  trade  simply  indicates  the  difference  in  progress  of 
civilization,  or  shall  we  say  the  progress  of  Christian- 
ity in  these  countries  ?  Recently  a  leading  journal  gave 
an  account  of  a  meeting  of  the  San  Francisco  Cham- 
ber of  Commerce  which  a  few  years  ago  selected 
twentj^-five  business  men  from  six  of  the  coast  cities 
and  sent  them  to  China  to  study  trade  conditions. 
On  their  return  they  voted  unanimously  that  relations 
between  missions  and  trade  were  very  close.  They 
declared  that  if  it  had  not  been  for  the  missionaries 
there  would  be  little  or  no  trade  with  the  interior 

[i8o] 


WHAT  OF  THE  FUTURE 

of  China.  A  British  statesman  recently  declared 
that  a  missionary  twenty-five  years  on  the  field,  is 
worth  $50,000  a  year  to  the  commerce  of  Great  Bri- 
tain. It  is  freely  asserted  that  China  is  now  under  a 
republican  form  of  g>overnment  because  of  the  in- 
fluence of  Christian  missions.  It  would  seem  that 
many  conditions  are  converging  toward  the  fulfillment 
of  Nev/ton's  prophecy. 

Newton  was  correct  also  in  recognizing  that  certain 
changes  and  new  conditions  were  necessary  before 
a  rapid  and  sudden  movement  toward  the  Christian- 
ization  of  the  world  could  take  place.  For  want  of 
those  conditions,  Greece  failed  to  extend  her  democ- 
racy beyond  a  city  state.  Rome  found  it  difficult  to 
hold  together  the  widely  scattered  provinces  con- 
quered by  her  ' '  far  flung  battle  lines. ' '  The  present 
British  Empire,  including  one  fifth  of  the  land  area 
of  the  earth  and  distributed  over  the  entire  globe; 
and  our  own  Republic,  extending  from  sea  to  sea  and 
including  many  distant  islands  of  the  Pacific,  would 
have  been  well  nigh  impossible  before  the  coming  of 
the  printing  press,  the  fast  going  steamship,  the  rail- 
way, the  telephone  and  ocean  cable. 

It  is  not  only  that  we  have  learned  to  travel  at  the 
rate  of  fifty  to  one  hundred  miles  an  hour,  but  we  are 
in  possession  of  many  other  means  that  may  become 
agencies  in  accelerating  the  coming  of  the  Kingdom. 
The  rapid  growth  of  the  English  language,  promising 
soon  to  be  understood  the  world  around;  our  im- 
proved methods  of  sowing,  reaping  and  milling,  mak- 
ing it  possible  to  wipe  out  famine  and  adequately  to 
feed  the  world;  the  wonderful  advance  in  medical 

[i8i] 


EELIGIOUS  OPTIMISM 

science,  assuring  a  lengthened  and  more  wholesome 
and  efficient  physical  life;  the  advanced  means  of 
communication  and  transportation  —  the  telephone, 
the  wireless,  the  aeroplane.  Nations  are  now  in  touch 
through  the  air  as  well  as  by  land  and  water.  They 
can  literally  catch  each  other's  speech  out  of  the 
atmosphere. 

A  new  interest  in  foreign  peoples  is  everywhere 
manifest.  Foreign  news  has  captured  the  front  page 
of  the  daily  papers  of  all  the  leading  nations.  The 
attainment  of  a  warless  world  has  become  a  ruling 
passion  and  is  advocated  by  pen  and  persuasion,  in 
schools  and  colleges  and  books,  and  in  the  highways 
and  byways  of  public  life.  It  is  no  longer  confined 
to  the  efforts  of  a  few  idealists. 

There  are  also  indications  that  education  and  re- 
ligion may  become  more  closely  united.  Education 
promises  again  ''to  become  in  intention  and  spirit  re- 
ligious, and  that  the  impulse  to  devotion,  to  universal 
service  and  to  complete  escape  from  self,  may  reappear 
again,  stripped  and  plain,  as  the  recognized  funda- 
mental structural  impulse  of  human  society."^  Edu- 
cation may  become  the  preparation  of  the  individual 
for  the  community,  for  international  sympathy  and 
good-will,  for  the  world  view,  for  the  feeling  of  com- 
mon brotherhood  toward  all  peoples  of  earth;  and 
religious  training  emphasizing  the  cardinal  principle 
of  the  Universal  Fatherhood  of  God  may  soon  be  rec- 
ognized as  the  heart  of  that  preparation,  creating 
a  new  spirit,  a  new  enthusiasm,  a  new  passion  and 


1  H.  G.  Wells — The  Outline  of  History,  p.  1089,  single  volume. 

[182] 


WHAT  OF  THE  FUTURE 

dynamic  for  world  conquest  in  the  name  of  the 
World's  Redeemer  —  Jesus  Christ. 

Along  with  the  teaching  of  the  Bible  and  the 
preaching  of  the  church,  science,  commerce,  the  press, 
and  statesmen  are  proclaiming  the  unity  of  the  race 
and  are  meeting  in  international  conference  and 
planning  for  the  welfare  of  mankind.  A  new  inter- 
national mindedness  has  sprung  up  and  with  it  a  new 
international  consciousness.  It  is  a  hopeful  sign  that 
our  leaders  in  public  life  are,  in  greater  numbers  than 
ever  before,  pronounced  in  their  allegiance  to  the  prin- 
ciples of  the  Christian  faith  —  Lloyd  George,  Gener- 
als Foch  and  Pershing,  Harding,  Hughes,  Bryan, 
Wilson,  Daniels  and  literally  scores  of  others.  Many 
of  the  Oriental  representatives  to  the  Washingt-on 
Conference  are  of  confessed  Christian  affiliation. 
No  less  than  eighty  of  the  Chinese  delegation  are 
related  to  churches  or  to  the  Young  Men's  Chris- 
tian Association.  In  the  Japanese  group  there  are 
twenty  men  who  have  served  on  local  or  national 
Young  Men's  Christian  Association  committees.  The 
delegate  from  India,  Mr.  Sastri,  was  welcomed  in  New 
York  upon  his  arrival  by  the  International  committee 
of  the  Young  Men 's  Christian  Association. 

The  hope  of  the  future  now  seems  to  depend  on 
four  great  agencies  —  science,  democracy,  education 
and  religion.  The  present  progress  and  outlook  in 
all  four  are  of  a  character  to  inspire  optimism. 

This  is  rightly  called  the  scientific  age.  In  no 
phase  of  our  modern  life  has  progress  been  so  marked 

[183] 


KELIGIOUS  OPTIMISM 

as  in  the  field  of  science.  Its  victories  read  like 
a  fairy  tale,  and  one  is  compelled  to  draw  on  the 
imagination  to  grasp,  in  any  measure,  its  marvelous 
conquests,  and  it  would  seem  that  we  are  at  present 
merely  at  the  threshold  of  the  most  amazing  revela- 
tions. Science  has  become  far  too  resourceful  and 
powerful  to  be  permitted  longer  to  devote  its  ener- 
gies to  destructive  weapons  in  the  interests  of  war- 
fare. In  the  future  it  must  be  wholly  consecrated  to 
constructive  work  in  the  interests  of  peace  and  pro- 
gress. Science  has  had  its  faults  as  has  every  other 
agency  that  has  wrought  in  the  interest  of  mankind. 
It  has  been  far  too  fragmentary.  Scientists  working 
in  their  own  little  department  have  failed  to  recog- 
nize the  relation  of  their  fields  to  the  whole.  It  also 
has  been  too  exclusively  engaged  with  the  physical. 
It  is  only  recently  that  it  has  seriously  undertaken 
to  deal  with  our  social  and  religious  welfare.  There 
is  need  for  greater  synthetic  work  among  scien- 
tists. They  draw  conclusions  from  to  small  a 
number  of  experiments  or  at  least  from  too  small  a 
range  of  observation.  Science,  however,  is  determined 
to  know  the  truth,  and  more  and  more  it  is  revealing 
new  truth  and  liberating  old  truth  from  its  mixture 
of  error.  One  hope  of  the  future  lies  in  this  ever 
enlarging  truth.  For  if  the  truth  shall  make  us  free, 
we  shall  be  free  indeed. 

Democracy,  at  least  so  far  as  its  extensive  phase 
is  concerned,  is  triumphant.  Indeed,  its  spread  during 
the  past  decade  has  been  so  phenomenal  that  its  very 
growth  threatens  to  become  its  embarrassment.    But 

[184] 


WHAT  OF  THE  FUTURE 

the  entire  concept  of  democracy  is  now  undergoing 
careful  review  and  critical  analysis.  We  have  already 
come  to  realize  we  must  have  more  than  political 
democracy,  more  than  universal  suffrage,  more  than 
equal  rights  and  opportunities,  more  than  the  voice 
and  counsel  of  the  common  man.  Democracy  must 
emphasize  duties  and  obligations  as  well  as  personal 
rights.  It  must  beget  "the  larger  lieart  and  the 
kindlier  hand."  "Modern  democracy  is  becoming 
less  a  matter  of  personal  rights,  less  a  matter  of  party 
programs,  less  a  matter  of  legal  traditions  and  more 
a  state  of  mind,  a  feeling  of  community  interests 
based  upon  common  ideals."^  Democracy  must  be- 
come more  a  matter  of  the  spirit,  more  a  sympathetic 
cooperation  with  our  fellow  men  in  an  attempt  to 
work  out  humanity's  highest  destiny.  It  must  partake 
more  largely  of  the  Christian  ideal  of  brotherhood, 
acknowledging  a  common  Father,  hence,  a  common 
family  of  which  each  and  all  are  members.  It  must 
build  on  education  and  religion,  for  democracy  was 
never  intended  for  illiterate  and  irreligious  peoples. 
This  age  is  working  out  a  new  democracy.^ 


1  Mecklin — Introduction  to    Social  Ethics,   p.   436. 

1  "The  Church  and  Industrial  Reconstruction,"  p.  16,  states  this 
larger  meaning  of  Democracy  as  follows:  "In  this  insistance  upon  the 
value  of  the  individual  personality  and  the  underlying  faith  in  the 
potential  capacity  of  the  least  of  men  to  fulfill  some  worthy  function 
in  society,  Christianity  finds  its  point  of  contact  with  modern 
democracy.  Democracy  is  the  attempt  to  realize  this  fundamental 
right  of  every  personality  to  self  expression  through  cooperation  with 
others  in  a  common  task.  In  the  political  sphere  it  has  already 
found  large  recognition.  But  we  are  discovering  that  there  are 
other  spheres  of  human  interest  to  which  it  equally  applies.  In  fact, 
if  we  begin  by  accepting  the  Christian  estimate  of  man  we  shall  find 
it  difficult  to  set  any  limits  to  democracy.  It  applies,  or  should  apply, 
in  the  sphere  of  organized  religion,  which  is  the  Church.  It  applies 
in  the  sphere  of  industry,  etc."  See  also  Conklin  "The  Direction 
of  Human  Evolution"  p.  100  and  Giddings,  "Elements  of  Sociology" 
p.   315. 


RELIGIOUS  OPTIMISM 

The  trend  in  education  despite  certain  modern 
criticisms  is  wholesome.  The  flocking  of  youth  to  our 
high  schools  and  colleges,  the  passion  of  the  American 
people  for  education,  point  in  the  right  direction. 
While  most  of  our  educational  work  is  well  done,  in 
view  of  the  needs  of  this  age,  and  the  rapid  spread 
of  democracy,  our  educational  system  also  is  being 
subjected  to  a  searching  criticism,  which  in  the  end 
is  bound  to  prove  beneficial.  Education  must  be  less 
subject  to  the  immediate  demands  of  the  age.  It 
must  assume  initiative  and  leadership  and  in  a  larger 
way  help  to  direct  and  mold  modem  life.  We  must 
not  only  educate  for  efficiency  but  for  leisure  as  well, 
in  order  to  save  men  and  women  from  becoming 
mere  machines  under  the  influence  of  modem  indus- 
trial life.  Education  must  be  fraught  with  a  larger 
social,  ethical  and  religious  content.  It  must  break 
from  the  mass- curriculum  and  more  fully  adapt  it- 
self to  individual  capacities.  It  must  include  at 
least  four  leading  objectives:  (1)  The  intellectual, 
covering  all  that  modern  knowledge  and  experience 
have  to  furnish  in  general  enlightenment  and  in  dis- 
ciplining the  mind,  enabling  the  individual  to  grapple 
with  the  real  problems  of  modern,  practical  life.  (2) 
The  cultivation  of  a  disposition  which  inclines  one 
to  the  good,  pure,  true  and  beautiful.  (3)  Strength 
of  will,  sufficient  to  lead  one  to  assume  his  full  share 
of  the  world's  work  and  to  hold  one  steadfast  in  the 
path  of  rectitude.  (4)  An  international  conscious- 
ness. Many  of  our  great  problems  now  arise  out  of 
international  relations  and  this  will  be  more  largely 

[i86] 


WHAT  OF  THE  FUTURE 

true  in  the  future.  Education  must  do  more  to  im- 
part the  world-view  and  to  give  an  understanding 
and  appreciation  of  foreign  peoples.  It  must  do,  only 
it  must  do  it  better,  what  the  Church  is  trying  to  do 
through  its  missionary  instruction  and  it  must  do  it 
without  minimizing  or  merging  our  finest  spirit  of 
nationalism.  ''Patriotism  of  humanity"  must  be 
taught  along  with  national  patriotism. 

It  has  been  the  effort  of  this  volume  to  prove  that 
the  church  is  alert,  active  and  progressive  in  a  measure 
never  before  known,  that  its  sanctions  are  more  whole- 
some than  ever  before. 

We  do  not  agree  with  those  who  maintain  that  the 
church  has  carried  the  extensive  phase  of  its  work 
too  far,  that  her  activities  are  too  many  and  too 
widely  spread.  She  must  still  dare  farther  in  these 
directions.  The  entire  world  is  her  legitimate  field, 
and  she  must  aim  to  sanctify  not  a  part  of  life  but 
the  whole  of  life  —  individual,  social,  national  and 
international.  But  there  is  much  justice  in  the  criti- 
cism that  the  Church  of  God  needs  to  enrich  and 
deepen  her  own  life.  In  proportion  as  we  lengthen 
our  cords,  we  must  strengthen  our  stakes.  In  the  pro- 
portion we  scatter  our  activities,  we  must  enrich  our 
spirit.  There  is  urgent  need,  therefore,  for  renewed 
faith,  devotion,  prayer,  and  consecration.  The  pro- 
gress in  all  these  great  agencies  for  human  betterment 
reveals  little  ground  for  pessimism  and  none  for  des- 
pair, but  it  is  of  a  character,  on  the  contrary,  to  inspire 
hope,  courage  and  well-grounded  optimism.  As  relig- 
ious workers,  we  need  to  lose  that  caution  that  leads  us 

[187] 


RELIGIOUS  OPTIMISM 

to  think  over  much  about  our  own  denominational 
interests  and  safety  and  assume  the  divine  reckless- 
ness of  the  Master  who  was  willing  to  risk  his  life  in 
order  to  save  the  world.  Many  sects  and  denomina- 
tions must  assume  the  attitude  of  John  the  Baptist, 
—  a  willingness  to  decrease  that  Christ  may  increase. 

In  sculpture,  the  Laocoon  Group,  which  represents 
Laocoon  and  his  two  sons  struggling  with  the  serpents 
that  came  up  out  of  the  Aegean  Sea  to  punish  the 
priests  for  warning  Troy  of  the  dangers  of  admitting 
the  wooden  horse,  is  generally  regarded  as  one  of  the 
world's  greatest  masterpieces.  The  figures  are  por- 
trayed in  that  awful  moment  when  they  come  to 
realize  their  fate  and  are  gradually  relaxing  their 
efforts  against  the  twin  monsters  of  the  sea.  Critics 
and  pessimists  would  have  us  believe  that  that  fatal 
moment  has  come  upon  the  Church.  But  a  modern 
artist  has  given  a  new  and  far  better  interpretation 
to  this  ancient  theme  of  humanity's  struggle  with 
evil.  Mr.  Edstrom,  in  his  "Man  Triumphant,"  has 
caught  the  spirit  and  trend  of  the  church  of  this 
age.  His  theme  is  the  same  as  that  of  the  Greek 
masterpiece;  but  the  issue  is  victory,  not  defeat.  On 
the  sides  of  the  pedestal,  as  this  modern  masterpiece 
is  described,  are  four  figures  representing  humanity's 
achievements  through  physical  power,  through 
education,  through  cultivation  of  the  emotional  nature 
and  through  religion.  We  should  care  to  change  this 
but  slightly  and  permit  the  four  figures  to  stand  for 
science,  education,  democracy,  and  the  Christian  re- 
ligion —  Man  triumphant  through  these  forces  is  the 

[i88] 


WHAT  OF  THE  FUTURE 

optimistic  answer  to  the  despair  of  the  world,  repre- 
sented by  the  Greek  artist  about  the  time  when 
Christianity  entered,  and  to  the  gloom  and  forebod- 
ings of  modern  pessimism  in  regard  to  the  Church 
and  our  modem  civilization. 

"God  grant  us  wisdom  in  these  coming  days, 
And  eyes  unsealed,  that  we  clear  visions  see 
Of  that  new  world  that  He  would  have  us  build 
To  Life's  ennoblement  and  His  high  ministry! 

God  give  us  sense  —  God-sense  —  of  Life's  new  needs. 
And  souls  aflame  with  new-born  chivalries  — 

To  cope  with  those  black  growths  that  foul  the  ways — 
To  cleanse  our  poisoned  founts  with  God-bom  energies! 

To  pledge  our  souls  to  nobler,  loftier  life, 

To  win  the  world  to  His  fair  sanctities, 
To  bind  the  nations  in  a  pact  of  peace. 

And  free  the  soul  of  Life  for  finer  loyalties! 

Not  since  Christ  died  upon  His  lonely  cross 

Has  Time  such  prospect  held  of  Life's  new  birth. 

Not  since  the  world  of  chaos  first  was  bom 

Has  man  so  clearly  visaged  hope  of  a  new  earth! 

Not  of  our  own  might  can  we  hope  to  rise 

Above  the  ruts  and  soilures  of  the  past. 
But  with  His  help  who  did  the  first  earth  build, 

With  hearts  courageous  we  may  fairer  build  this  last!"^ 

FINIS 


1  From  the  Brooklyn  Eagle  in  a  Sermon  by  Dr.  Hillis. 

[r89] 


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